As far as the execution is concerned ... the most frequent and most serious mistake is to follow the music instead of preceding it.

A great work is made out of a combination of obedience and liberty.

To study music, we must learn the rules. To create music, we must break them.

The great conductor is always a despot by temperament and intractable in his ways. ... The artist is obliged to keep his laughter and tears to himself. If they want to emerge, in spite of himself, then he must hide them or unleash them in someone else.

Never forget that your days are blessed. You may know how to profit by them, or you may not, but they are blesses.

[On being asked how it felt to be the first female conductor of the Boston Symphony:] I've been a woman for a little more than fifty years, and I've gotten over my original astonishment.

Do not take up music unless you would rather die than not do so.