 As the mother teaches her children how to express themselves in their language, so one Gypsy musician teaches the other. They have never shown any need for notation. |
| It is impossible to imagine a more complete fusion with nature than that of the Gypsy. |
| I foster a sorrowful conception of affection. Make no sacrifices. |
| Inspiration is enough to give expression to the tone in singing, especially when the song is without words. |
| Mournful and yet grand is the destiny of the artist. |
| A person of any mental quality has ideas of his own. This is common sense. |
| We need improvement in the style of performance. There is no more advantage in a musician who plays and conducts than in one who is only a beater of rhythm. |
| Sorrowful and great is the artist's destiny. |
| Real men are sadly lacking in this world, for when they are put to the test they prove worthless. |
| Without any assistance whatever, I founded a school in Weimar in 10 years. Only I could perform certain works with the scanty means that I dared not ask anyone else to work with. |
| Companions, in misery and worse, that is what we all are, and to try to change this substantially avails us nothing. |
| The music of the Gypsies belongs in the sphere of improvisation rather than in any other, without which it would have no power to exist. |
| Life is only a long and bitter suicide, and faith alone can transform this suicide into a sacrifice. |
| Beware of missing chances; otherwise it may be altogether too late some day. |
| Supreme serenity still remains the Ideal of great Art. The shapes and transitory forms of life are but stages toward this Ideal, which Christ's religion illuminates with His divine light. |
| I did not compose my work as one might put on a church vestment... rather it sprung from the truly fervent faith of my heart, such as I have felt it since my childhood. |
| A theatre receives recognition through its initiative, which is indispensable for first-rate performances. |
| The principal task of a conductor is not to put himself in evidence but to disappear behind his functions as much as possible. We are pilots, not servants. |
| Truth is a great flirt. |
| Broad paths are open to every endeavour, and a sympathetic recognition is assured to every one who consecrates his art to the divine services of a conviction of a consciousness. |
