I foster a sorrowful conception of affection. Make no sacrifices.

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 find little in the works of Beethoven, Berlioz, Wagner and others when they are led by a conductor who functions like a windmill.

Beware of missing chances; otherwise it may be altogether too late some day.

Brahms' Variations are better than mine, but mine were written before his.

The public is always good.

Truth is a great flirt.

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.

The character of instrumental music... lets the emotions radiate and shine in their own character without presuming to display them as real or imaginary representations.

In Hungary all native music, in its origin, is divided naturally into melody destined for song or melody for the dance.

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.

Real men are sadly lacking in this world, for when they are put to the test they prove worthless.

I conclude that the Wagnerian operas which are already in the repertoire, and other masterworks as well, stand in no further need of my services.

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.

Life is only a long and bitter suicide, and faith alone can transform this suicide into a sacrifice.

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.

It is my fervent wish and my greatest ambition to leave a work with a few useful instructions for the pianists after me.

Sorrowful and great is the artist's destiny.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Companions, in misery and worse, that is what we all are, and to try to change this substantially avails us nothing.

A theatre receives recognition through its initiative, which is indispensable for first-rate performances.

Music embodies feeling without forcing it to contend and combine with thought, as it is forced in most arts and especially in the art of words.

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.

Beware of missing chances otherwise it may be altogether too late some day.

Companions in misery and worse that is what we all are and to try to change this substantially avails us nothing.

You cannot imagine how it spoils one to have been a child prodigy.

The essential elements of giving are power and love - activity and affection - and the consciousness of the race testifies that in the high and appropriate exercise of these is a blessedness greater than any other.

The great model of the affection of love in human beings is the sentiment which subsists between parents and children.

No money on earth can buy the love and affection that has been given to me by a grateful nation.

I have loved but one flag and I can not share that devotion and give affection to the mongrel banner invented for the League of Nations.

Affection reproaches, but does not denounce.

But today, I feel the genuine warmth, the affection, and although I may joke about it, I am touched.

Well the wedding in the words of the Archbishop of Canterbury was a fairy tale and there was a huge public impress, investment of goodwill, affection and indeed money in this Institution. It was a huge success at the time.

All those authors there, most of whom of course I've never met. That's the poetry side, that's the prose side, that's the fishing and miscellaneous behind me. You get an affection for books that you've enjoyed.

The public has always had affection for gay entertainers. The time was right for an out gay entertainer.

While I've lived in L.A. since 1985, I'll always consider Chicago my home town and have much affection for it. My parents and sister still live there so I try to visit as often as I'm able.

A mixture of admiration and pity is one of the surest recipes for affection.

I would tell anyone who wants something from someone else to feign not wanting it. People are perverse. If you show great affection to them, they'll run the other way.

I think the President inspires tremendous affection and loyalty by a wide range of people.

He makes a great mistake... who supposes that authority is firmer or better established when it is founded by force than that which is welded by affection.

Even Stravinsky does not evoke the same public affection as Verdi.

Unless our conception of patriotism is progressive, it cannot hope to embody the real affection and the real interest of the nation.

Talk not of wasted affection - affection never was wasted.