Quotes from Gustav Mahler

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

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

With the coming of spring, I am calm again.

I also had a brother who was like me a musician and a composer. A man of great talent, far more gifted than I. He died very young... he killed himself in the prime of his life.

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.

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

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

The real art of conducting consists in transitions.

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

Tradition is laziness.

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

When I have reached a summit, I leave it with great reluctance, unless it is to reach for another, higher one.

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

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

Discipline, work. Work, discipline.

It is strange how one feels drawn forward without knowing at first where one is going.

Never let oneself be guided by the opinion of one's contemporaries. Continue steadfastly on one's way.

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

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

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

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.

Both my marriages were failures! Number one departed, and number two stayed