Gustav Mahler Quotes - Page 2

A full cup of wine at the right time is worth more than all the kingdoms of this earth!

It is easier to achieve a desired result in short pieces.

There is a world of difference between a Mahler eighth note and a normal eighth note.

All that is not perfect down to the smallest detail is doomed to perish.

Don't bother looking at the view - I have already composed it.

I have become a different person. I don't know whether this person is better, he certainly is not happier.

I don't let myself get carried away by my own ideas; I abandon 19 out of 20 of them every day.

To judge a composer's work, one must consider it as a whole.

The real art of conducting consists in transitions.

The longer you live and the more you learn, the more clearly you will feel the difference between the few men who are truly great and the mere virtuosi.

Only when I experience do I compose - only when I compose do I experience.

I live like a Hottentot. I cannot exchange one sensible word with anyone.

A true personality . . . is like a robust organism that, with unconscious sureness, seeks out and digests the nourishment appropriate to it and vigorously rejects that which is unsuitable.

In the theatrical works we love and admire the most, the ending of the drama generally takes place offstage.

Spring won't let me stay in this house any longer! I must get out and breathe the air deeply again.

I was a crazy young man who let himself be blinded by his passions and obeyed only the impulses of the moment.

It's not just a question of conquering a summit previously unknown, but of tracing, step by step, a new pathway to it.

For the last month I have been a strict vegetarian. The moral effects of this regime are immense, owing to the voluntary subjugation of the flesh and the resulting absence of desires. You will appreciate how full I am of this idea when I tell you that I expect it to work the regeneration of mankind. I advise you to change over to a natural way of life, with proper nourishment (wholemeal bread), and you will soon feel the benefit.

Fortunately, something always remains to be harvested. So let us not be idle.

Destiny smiles upon me but without making me the least bit happier.

The impressions of the spriritual experiences gave my future life its form and content.

Behind me the branches of a wasted and sterile existence are cracking.

Life's been nothing but paperwork.

The call of love sounds very hollow among these immobile rocks.

It is always the same with me; only when I experience something do I compose, and only when composing do I experience! After all, a musician's nature can hardly be expressed in words.