A man is not necessarily a master because he happened to compose two or three centuries ago. Let us beware of the worship of mere antiquity.

If I don't practise for one day, I know it; if I don't practise for two days, the critics knows it; if I don't practise for three days, the audience knows it.

True originality has its foundations in the soul, not in the mind, and when there is an effort to create something different it is usually a failure. Beethoven or Schumann or Chopin did not try to be original. They were original.

Man is naturally lazy, therefore he invents labor-saving devices.

I am nothing! If you could know the dream of what I would like to be, you would realize how little I have accomplished.

Music is the only art that actually lives.

The great familiar musical works are always greeted by the audiences as ever welcome and beloved friends.