Times change, people change, thought and feeling take new shapes, put on fresh garments, sons bow their heads unwillingly to that which enraptured their fathers.

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

Music expresses first of all sadness rather than joy.

Piano playing is more difficult than statesmanship. It is harder to awake emotions in ivory keys than it is in human beings.

Rhythm is the pulse of music.

Change follows change in us, almost without transition; we pass from blissful rapture to sobbing woe; a single step divides our sublimest ecstasies from the darkest depth of spiritual despondency.

Is there anything more true than human pain? Is there anything more sincere than the cry for help from those who suffer? Only a great wave of mankind's pity can surmount an immense wave of human misery?