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.

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.

Bach is the supreme genius of music... This man, who knows everything and feels everything, cannot write one note, however unimportant it may appear, which is anything but transcendent. He has reached the heart of every noble thought, and has done it in the most perfect way.

In music, in the sea, in a flower, in a leaf, in an act of kindness... I see what people call God in all these things.

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

To retire is to begin to die.

The most perfect technique is that which is not noticed at all.