Quotes from Gustav Mahler

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

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

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.

What is best in music is not to be found in the notes.

A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything.

In Bach, the vital cells of music are united as the world is in God.

The further the music develops, the more complex the apparatus used by the composer to express his thoughts becomes.

But it's peculiar, as soon as I am in the midst of nature and by myself, everything that is base and trivial vanishes without trace. On such days nothing scares me; and this helps me again and again.

I hope you will no longer accuse me of a lack of delicacy. as I now count on your understanding.

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

I am hitting my head against the walls, but the walls are giving way.

The spirit can assert itself only through the medium of clear form.

If I weren't the way I am, I shouldn't write my symphonies.

I beg of you... never assume an inner or an outer pose, never a disguise.

The point is not to take the world's opinion as a guiding star but to go one's way in life and working unerringly, neither depressed by failure nor seduced by applause.

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

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

What I wanted and what I visualized while composing has not always been realized.

Life's been nothing but paperwork.

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

Even if people censure me, they should do so hat in hand.

I am thrice homeless, as a native of Bohemia in Austria, as an Austrian among Germans, and as a Jew throughout the world. Everywhere an intruder, never welcomed.

Beauty and fullness of tone can be achieved by having the whole orchestra play with high clarinets and a carefully selected number of piccolos.

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