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

The essence of higher instrumental music lays herein that one is able to express in tones that what one is unable to say in words.

I have long been convinced that my artistic ideal stands or falls with Germany. Only the Germany that we love and desire can help us achieve that ideal.

Blessed be, the genius who never knew good fortune! Genius in itself already means so much; what meaning does luck still hold for him?

One siupreme fact which I have discovered is that it is not willpower, but fantasy and imagination that ceates. Imagination is the creative force. Imagination creates reality.

The oldest, truest, most beautiful organ of music, the origin to which alone our music owes its being, is the human voice.

Human dignity begins to assert itself only at the point where man is distinguishable from the beast by pity for it.