Do not take up music unless you would rather die than not do so.
Art is not emotion. Art is the medium in which emotion is expressed.
Do nothing for effect. Do it for truth.
[On the music of Richard Strauss:] Too many notes!
Without order there can be no inner satisfaction. Without inner satisfaction there can be no freedom. Without freedom there is no joy.
It is easier to analyze a work in its form, in its evolution, than simply to love it with all the living forces of our heart. It is easier to define its peculiarities and its details than to draw out of it its emotion, its thought.