Just as surely as every new language mastered opens up a new world, so knowledge of a Beethoven, a Chopin, or a Schumann opens up a new world in spiritual beauty and thought.

Music expresses first of all sadness rather than joy.

Music is the only art that actually lives.

Chopin was an invalid, as you know, but his music was volcanic.

Beginnings play their prized part in every finished human accomplishment, for beginnings mean the birth of added progress.

Fatherland before everything, art afterward.

There have been a few moments when I have known complete satisfaction, but only a few. I have rarely been free from the disturbing realization that my playing might have been better.