Pablo Casals Quotes

Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe; a moment that never was before and never will be again.

How could anybody think of Bach as 'cold' when these [cello] suites seem to shine with the most glittering kind of poetry," Casals said. "As I got on with the study I discovered a new world of space and beauty... the feelings I experienced were among the purest and most intense in my artistic life!

The answer to helplessness is not so very complicated.

The person who works and is never bored is never old. Work and interest in worthwhile things are the best remedy for age.

I do not think a day passes in my life in which I fail to look with fresh amazement at the miracle of nature.

The art of interpretation is not to play what is written.

Real understanding does not come from what we learn in books; it comes from what we learn from love of nature, of music, of man. For only what is learned in that way is truly understood.

Don't play the notes. Play the meaning of the notes.

Say things to the world that are true.

Kenneth Hari's art work shall influence mankind.

I used to think that eighty was a very old age. Now I am ninety. I do not think this any more. As long as you are able to admire and to love, you are young.

The art of not playing in tempo--one has to learn it. And the art of not playing what is written on the printed paper.

The truly important things in life - love, beauty, and one's own uniqueness - are constantly being overlooked.

Man has made many machines, complex and cunning, but which of them indeed rivals the workings of his heart?

Resist doing things that have no meaning for life.

The cello is like a beautiful woman who has not grown older, but younger with time, more slender, more supple, more graceful.

Do we dare be ourselves? That is the question that counts.

Let us not forget that the greatest composers were also the greatest thieves. They stole from everyone and everywhere.

Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage. It takes courage for a person to listen to his own goodness and act on it.

As long as one can admire and love, then one is young forever.

The simplest things in music are the ones that count. The simplest thing are, of course, also the most difficult to achieve and take years of work.

Yes, it is true. I am a miracle. I am a miracle like a tree is a miracle, like a flower is a miracle. Now, if I am a miracle, can I do a bad thing? I can't, because I am a miracle, I am a miracle. . . .

You do not lose your value or preciousness when you grow to be a adult. You are still that miraculous creation. You must work, we must all work, to make the world worthy of its children.

Thank God, I'll never have to play the cello again.

The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him.

One should be able to say to our children: You are a marvel! You are unique. In all the world, there is no other child exactly like you. In the millions of years that have passed, there has never been another child like you! ... and when you grow up, can you harm another who is, like you, a marvel?

Rock n' roll is poison put to sound.

We ought to think that we are one of the leaves of a tree, and the tree is all humanity. We cannot live without the others, without the tree.

Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart.

The miracle of Bach has not appeared in any other art. To strip human nature until its divine attributes are made clear, to inform ordinary activities with spiritual fervour, to give wings of eternity to that which is most ephemeral; to make divine things human and human things divine; such is Bach, the greatest and purest moment in music of all time.

To the whole world you might be just one person, but to one person you might just be the whole world.

I have always regarded manual labour as creative and looked with respect-and, yes, wonder-at people who work with their hands. It seems to me that their creativity is no less than that of a violinist or painter.

The earth becomes heaven when you release your fear. The main thing in life is not to be afraid of being human.

To be a musician is a great privilege but it is also a very great responsibility. One must think that to be a musician is a gift - a gift from Nature. There is no great merit in us except in loving this gift with respect and devotion and doing everything possible to honor that gift by work and more work. We must work with conviction and humility, searching for beauty, simplicity, and the Truth. And it is for us musicians to do all in our power for a better world. Music must carry the message of beauty, of love and of peace.

The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?

The situation is hopeless, we must take the next step.

The first thing to do in life is to do with purpose what one purposes to do.

Every wrong seems possible today, and is accepted. I don't accept it.

I don't have hobbies. I have passions.

I am an old man but in many senses a very young man. And this is what I want you to be, young, young all your life.

Don’t be vain because you happen to have talent. You are not responsible for that; it was not of your doing. What you do with your talent is what matters.

The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border? There is a brotherhood among all men. This must be recognized if life is to remain. We must learn the love of man.

What do we teach our children? . . . We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique . . . You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything.

There is no substitute for work; what seems ease of performance comes from the greatest labor.

The greatest respect an artist can pay to music is to give it life.

To retire is the beginning of death.

When you play Bach like Chopin, and Chopin like Bach, something good happens.

I feel the capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest significance.