We must have recourse to the rules [of music] only when our genius and our ear seem to deny what we are seeking.

What strange impulse is it which induces otherwise truthful people to say they like music when they do not, and thus expose themselves to hours of boredom?

Of music. Thou speakest to me of things which in all my endless life I have not found and shall not find.

Why, after all, must everyone like music? That they are missing something is just the lover's opinion.

Music is a means of giving form to our inner feelings without attaching them to events or objects in the world.

The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes-ah, that is where the art resides!

The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; The motions of his spirit are dull as night, And his affections dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted.

Music revives the recollections it would appease.

When a man is not disposed to hear music, there is not a more disagreeable sound in harmony than that of the violin.

The one true comment on a piece of music is another piece of music.