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

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

The art of music is so deep and profound that to approach it very seriously only is not enough. One must approach music with a serious rigor and, at the same time, with a great, affectionate joy.

In music everything is prolonged, everything is edified, and when the enchantment has ceased, we are still bathed in its clarity; solitude is accompanied by a new hope between pity for ourselves - which makes us more indulgent and more understanding - and the certitude of finding something again, that which lives for ever in music.

False notes can be forgiven, false music cannot.

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

It is nothing to succeed if one has not taken great trouble, and it is nothing to fail if one has done the best one could.