Music truely has to all other arts the same relation as religion to the church.

...music is the living God in our bosoms.

The language of tones belongs equally to all mankind, and melody is the absolute language in which the musician speaks to every heart.

When religion becomes artificial, art has a duty to rescue it. Art can show that the symbols which religions would have us believe literally true are actually figurative. Art can idealize those symbols, and so reveal the profound truths they contain.

One might say that where Religion becomes artificial, it is reserved for Art to save the spirit of religion.

My destiny is solitude, and my life is work.

It is impossible to communicate with Schumann. The man is hopeless; he doesn't talk at all.