I do not believe, as do so many musicians, that genius should be left to fight its way to the light. Genius is too rare, too precious, to be permitted to waste the best years of life--the years of youth and lofty dreams--in a heart-breaking struggle for bread. To starve the soul with the body is to do worse than murder. Think, too, of what the public loses!

Music expresses first of all sadness rather than joy.

The culture of any country is gauged first by its progress in art.

Art is great only when it bears the stamp of the individual.

Fatherland before everything, art afterward.

If I do not practice one day; I know it. If I do not practice the next, the orchestra knows it; if I do not practice the third day, the whole world knows it.

The mere fact of knowing that a great audience waits on your labor is enough to shake all your nerves to pieces.