Robert Schumann Quotes

Let your intimate friends be chosen from such as are better informed than yourself.

If we were all determined to play the first violin we should never have an ensemble. Therefore, respect every musician in his proper place.

You will be most readily cured of vanity or presumption by studying the history of music, and by hearing the master pieces which have been produced at different periods.

You should neither play bad compositions, nor, unless compelled, listen to them.

The aesthetic principle is the same in every art, only the material differs.

We shouldn't repeat the same for ages on end, but look into the new as well.

The poet sees better than other mortals. I do not see things as they are, but according to my own subjective impression, and this makes life easier and simpler.

I feel so entirely in my element with a full orchestra; even if my mortal enemies were marshalled before me, I could lead them, master them, surround them, or repulse them.

Art was not created as a way to riches. Strive to become a true artist; all else will take care of itself.

It is the curse of talent that, although it labors with greater steadiness and perseverance than genius, it does not reach its goal, while genius already on the summit of the ideal, gazes laughingly about.

When you play, do not trouble yourself as to who is listening. Yet always play as though a master listened to you.

People compose for many reasons, to become immortal; because the piano happens to be open; because they want to become a millionaire; because of the praise of friends; because they have looked into a pair of beautiful eyes; or for no reason whatsoever.

You write to become immortal, or because the piano happens to be open, or you've looked into a pair of beautiful eyes.

Remember, there are more people in the world than yourself. Be modest! You have not yet invented nor thought anything which others have not thought or invented before. And should you really have done so, consider it a gift of heaven which you are to share with others.

It was an unforgettable picture to see Chopin sitting at the piano like a clairvoyant, lost in his dreams; to see how his vision communicated itself through his playing, and how, at the end of each piece, he had the sad habit of running one finger over the length of the plaintive keyboard, as though to tear himself forcibly away from his dream.

I sometimes lack confidence in public, although I am proud enough inwardly.

To compose is to remember music that has never been written.

My heart pounds sickeningly and I turn pale ... I often feel as if I were dead ... I seem to be losing my mind.

Perhaps only a Genius can truly understand Genius.

You should diligently play scales and fingerpractices. There are many, however, who believe they'll achieve all, by practicing daily on technique for hours on end, up till high age. It's like practicing every day to enumerate the alfabet faster and faster. One would think one could make better use of their valuable time.

Nature best teaches how to pray, and how to reverence all the gifts the Almighty has given us. She is like a vast outspread handkerchief, embroidered with God's eternal name, on which we may dry alike our tears of sorrow and of joy; she turns weeping into ecstasy, and fills our hearts with speechless, quiet reverence and resignation.

I was a God-fearing child, innocent and physically attractive.

If all would play first violin, we could not obtain an orchestra. Therefore esteem every musician in his place.

To send light into the darkness of men's hearts
such is the duty of the artist.

My whole life has been a struggle between Poetry and Prose, or call it Music and Law.

"We liked it" or "I didn't like it" people say. As if it were nothing higher than to please the people!

Endeavour to play easy pieces well and with elegance; that is better than to play difficult pieces badly.

Music induces nightingales to sing, pug dogs to yelp.

An evil fate has deprived me of the full use of my right hand, so that I am not able to play my compositions as I feel them. The trouble with my hand is that certain fingers have become so weak, probably through writing and playing too much at one time, that I can hardly use them.

Music - so different from painting - is the art which we enjoy most in company with others. A symphony, presented in a room with one other listener, would please him but little.

Nothing right can be accomplished in art without enthusiasm.

Can that which has cost the artist days, weeks, months and even years of reflection be understood in a flash by a dilettante?

Music owes as much to Bach as religion to its founder.

Only when the form grows clear to you, will the spirit become so too.

By means of industry and perseverance you will rise higher and higher.

We have learned to express the more delicate nuances of feeling by penetrating more deeply into the mysteries of harmony.

That first concept is alway the most naturally and best. The mind errs, the emotion never.

Confidence and courage are special skills to the art ... Within the four walls of his study, the artist should be modest, work diligently and conscientiously. While for the public, he'll show himself audacious, yes even into cheerful boldness. And so a new public's darling has arisen.

For me Wagner is impossible ... he talks without ever stopping. One can't just talk all the time.

Thus it is ever in life. The aims we once pursued no longer satisfy us; we aim, we strive, we aspire, until sight fails, and mind and body find rest in the grave.

When you play, never mind who listens to you.