Great Throughts Treasury

"Sins cannot be undone, only forgiven."

"Art postulates communion, and the other artist has an imperative need to make others share the joy which he experiences himself."

"I am in the present. I cannot know what tomorrow will bring forth. I can know only what the truth is for me today. That is what I am called upon to serve, and I serve it in all lucidity."

"Music is given to us specifically to make order of things, to move from an anarchic, individualistic state to a regulated, perfectly conscious one, which alone insures vitality and durability."

"Music is the sole domain in which man realizes the present."

"In order to create there must be a dynamic force, and what force is more potent than love?"

"Music is, but its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all... music expresses itself."

"Is it not by love alone that we succeed in penetrating to the very essence of a being?"

"The more controlled, limited, and tormented art is, the freer it is."

"The trouble with music appreciation in general is that people are taught to have too much respect for music; they should be taught to love it instead."

"I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge. "