The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one

Composers combine notes, that's all.

Music must be listened to; it is not enough to hear it. A duck hears also.

To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also.

A plague on eminence! I hardly dare cross the street any more without a convoy, and I am stared at wherever I go like an idiot member of a royal family or an animal in a zoo; and zoo animals have been known to die from stares.

My freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles. Whatever diminishes constraint diminishes strength. The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one's self of the chains that shackle the spirit.

It's one of nature's way that we often feel closer to distant generations than to the generation immediately preceding us.