Pablo Casals Quotes

Throughout my career, nervousness and stage-fright have never left me before playing. And each of the thousands of concerts I have played at, I feel as bad as I did the very first time.

Of course, I continue to play and to practice. I think I would do so if I lived for another hundred years.

Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again And what do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are? We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move. You may become a Shakespeare, a Michaelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel? You must work, we must all work, to make the world worthy of its children.

When you play Bach like Chopin, and Chopin like Bach, something good happens.

It is not a mechanical routine but something essential to my daily life. I go to the piano, and I play two preludes and fugues of Bach. I cannot think of doing otherwise. It is a sort of benediction on the house. But that is not its only meaning for me. It is a rediscovery of the world of which I have the joy of being a part. It fills me with awareness of the wonder of life, with a feeling of the incredible marvel of being a human being. The music is never the same for me, never. Each day is something new, fantastic, unbelievable. That is Bach, like nature, a miracle!

Thank God, I'll never have to play the cello again.

For twelve years I studied and worked at them every day, and I was nearly 25 before I had the courage to play one of them in public. Before I did, no violinist or cellist had ever played a Suite in its entirety.

The first thing to do in life is to do with purpose what one purposes to do.

The art of not playing in tempo
one has to learn it. And the art of not playing what is written on the printed paper.

For me, Bach is like Shakespeare. He has known all and felt all. He is everything.

Yes, it is true. I am a miracle. I am a miracle like a tree is a miracle, like a flower is a miracle. Now, if I am a miracle, can I do a bad thing? I can't, because I am a miracle, I am a miracle ...

I do not think a day passes in my life in which I fail to look with fresh amazement at the miracle of nature.

What do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are?

As long as one can admire and love, then one is young forever.

I have always regarded manual labour as creative and looked with respect-and, yes, wonder-at people who work with their hands. It seems to me that their creativity is no less than that of a violinist or painter.

To live is not enough; we must take part.

I am perhaps the oldest musician in the world. I am an old man but in many senses a very young man. And this is what I want you to be, young, young all your life, and to say things to the world that are true.

How could anybody think of Bach as 'cold' when these [cello] suites seem to shine with the most glittering kind of poetry," Casals said. "As I got on with the study I discovered a new world of space and beauty ... the feelings I experienced were among the purest and most intense in my artistic life!

The heart of the melody can never be put down on paper.

What do we teach our children? ... We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique ... You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything.

The most perfect technique is that which is not noticed at all.

Do we dare to be ourselves?' This is the question that counts - and not, 'Must a man be helpless?' ... A man can do something for peace without having to jump into politics.

Resist doing things that have no meaning for life.

The earth becomes heaven when you release your fear. The main thing in life is not to be afraid of being human.

The CHILD must know that he is a MIRACLE, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world will not be, another child like him.

I see no particular merit in the fact that I was an artist at the age of eleven. I was born with an ability, with music in me, that is all. No special credit was due me. The only credit we can claim is for the use we make of the talent we are given. That is why I urge young musicians: "Don't be vain because you happen to have talent. You are not responsible for that; it was not of your doing. What you do with your talent is what matters. You must cherish this gift. Do not demean or waste what you have been given. Work - work constantly and nourish it."
Of course the gift to be cherished most of all is that of life itself. One's work should be a salute to life.

If you play Bach every day, you are not so alone.

Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart..

For the past eighty years I have started each day in the same manner ... I go to the piano, and I play preludes and fugues of Bach ... It is a sort of benediction on the house.

Real understanding does not come from what we learn in books; it comes from what we learn from love of nature, of music, of man. For only what is learned in that way is truly understood.

The miracle of Bach has not appeared in any other art. To strip human nature until its divine attributes are made clear, to inform ordinary activities with spiritual fervour, to give wings of eternity to that which is most ephemeral; to make divine things human and human things divine; such is Bach, the greatest and purest moment in music of all time.

Parents shouldn't lie to their children-not even when they think it's for their own good. Even a little lie is dangerous ...

The truly important things in life - love, beauty, and one's own uniqueness - are constantly being overlooked.

It takes courage for people to listen to their own goodness and act on it.

In music, in the sea, in a flower, in a leaf, in an act of kindness ... I see what people call God in all these things.

Kenneth Hari's art work shall influence mankind.

Don't be vain because you happen to have talent. You are not responsible for that; it was not of your doing. What you do with your talent is what matters.

To retire is to die.

Do we dare be ourselves? That is the question that counts.

I am an old man, but in many senses a very young man. And this is what I want you to be, young, young all your life.

On my last birthday I was ninety-three years old. That is not young, of course. In fact, it is older than ninety. But age is a relative matter. If you continue to work and to absorb the beauty in the world about you, you find that age does not necessarily mean getting old. At least, not in the ordinary sense. I feel many things more intensely than ever before, and for me life grows more fascinating.

The simplest things in music are the ones that count. The simplest thing are, of course, also the most difficult to achieve and take years of work.

Don't play the notes. Play the meaning of the notes.

The only weapons I ever had were my cello and my baton.

I see in the melody of Nature, God. It is a wonderful work of art. The spirit of the art is wonderful. And I feel that I am myself because I have never taken music lightly. Music is the manifestation of God, like everything else.

Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage. It takes courage for a person to listen to his own goodness and act on it.

Let us not forget that the greatest composers were also the greatest thieves. They stole from everyone and everywhere.

Man has made many machines, complex and cunning, but which of them indeed rivals the workings of his heart?

The situation is hopeless, we must take the next step.

We ought to think that we are one of the leaves of a tree, and the tree is all humanity. We cannot live without the others, without the tree.

The greatest respect an artist can pay to music is to give it life.

Music must serve a purpose; it must be a part of something larger than itself, a part of humanity ...

To retire is the beginning of death.

I don't have hobbies. I have passions.

We are not free to walk on our neighbor's toes.

Rock n' roll is poison put to sound.

The most important thing in music is what is not in the notes.

The person who works and is never bored is never old. Work and interest in worthwhile things are the best remedy for age.

To retire is to begin to die.

The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?

The cello is like a beautiful woman who has not grown older, but younger with time, more slender, more supple, more graceful.