I hope this has not been done before.

Methinks it might be fun to write your favorite quotes by famous people.
Shall I start (why am I asking myself this)??

When I wished to sing of love, it turned to sorrow. And when I wished to sing of sorrow, it was transformed for me into love.
Franz Schubert

I'm sure it has been done, but no matter: Depending on circumstances I can think of several "favourite" quotes.

These include:

"The more I practice the luckier I get" Gary Player
"Anyone who can only think of one way to spell a word has no imagination" Mark Twain
"Oh dear, what a pity, never mind" Windsor Davies (or more accurately Jimmy Perry & David Croft)
"If music be the food of love, play golf" Stephen Potter

. . . and most appropriately at just gone midnight:
"Afore me it is so very late that we may call it early bye and bye. Goodnight." Romeo & Juliet , Act II Scene 3 (I think)

The often misquoted:

'I have always had a slight feeling of pity for the man who has no knowledge of chess, just as I would pity the man who has remained ignorant of love. Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy.'

Siegbert Tarrasch

So perfectly expressed. You cannot change a word

"We are never so helplessly unhappy as when we lose love." --Sigmund Freud

Are we allowed to be serious?

And are we allowed entire poems?


"Had I the heaven's embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths,
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."

W B Yeats

I was thinking of that one only the other day.... and set to music too... it is glorious, isn't it ?

"A man who doesn't trust himself can never really trust anyone else" by Cardinal de Retz

Attributed to every man and his dog, but I like many, maintain it was Frank Zappa who said:
"Talking about music is like fishing about architecture".

It was definitely he who said:
“If you want to get laid, go to college. If you want an education, go to the library.”

My favourite of the moment is from Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski:
"That's just like, your opinion, man". Can be applied to any discussion getting out of hand, so suitable for Internet fora.

I have a whole book 'Dictionary of Musical Quotations' split up in to different subjects. So I could keep this thread going with just musical ones.

Some of the best are those made by Thomas Beecham, and some mentioned before in Forums.

eg (To lady 'cellist) 'Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands, and all you can do is scratch it'

(On being asked if he had heard any Stockhausen) 'Possibly not, but I may have stepped in some'

And of course his opinion of the harpsichord - 'like two skeletons copulating on a tin roof'


Finally 'Bach ?? Rubbish! Whats more, Protestant Rubbish !'

Ever tried, ever failed. no matter. Try again, fail again, fail better. (Beckett)

...and my signature.

...and Mandela's inauguration speech ... 'your playing small doesn't serve the world ...etc'

I *think* Frank is supposed to have said 'writing about music ... dancing about architecture', but I might be wrong.

nick

I like Screaming Lord Sutch's political party slogan:

"Vote loony - you know it makes sense"

Incidentally, my daughter goes on to secondary school in September, and I've got her marvellous piano teacher a present, but if any of you know a good quotation about music teachers or teaching that I could write in the card I'd be very grateful.

I'm sure there is a section on music teachers in my aforementioned dictionary. Will check when Im home (Im away in Headingley tonight)

I have just remembered a well known quote by composer Max Reger, responding to a critic's review of his new work.

'Dear Sir,

I am sitting in the smallest room of my house with your review before me. Shortly it will be behind me!'

Genius.

"It's always seemed to me a sort of clever stupidity only to have one sort of talent - almost like a carrier pigeon."

George Eliot.

'I can resist everything except temptation' ~ the Divine Oscar

Ok here are some more.

Off with you! You're a happy fellow, for you'll give happiness and joy to many other people. There is nothing better or greater than that!
Ludwig van Beethoven


The world is a living image of God.
Tommaso Campanella

Surely that quote is not about genius?

I could spend hours browsing Wikiquote - here is the music page!

I just had a look through, I love this one:
"Playing the blues is like having to be black twice - Stevie Ray Vaughan missed on both counts, but I never noticed". B.B. King

I also remembered this one (Schoenberg's preface to Webern's 6 Bagatelles):
"Though the brevity of these pieces is a persuasive advocate for them, on the other hand that very brevity itself requires an advocate. Consider what moderation is required to express oneself so briefly. You can stretch every glance out in a poem, every sigh into a novel. But to express a novel in a single gesture, a joy in a breath - such concentration can only be present in proportion to the absence of self-pity. These pieces will only be understood by those who share the faith that music can say things which can only be expressed by music. May this silence sound for them!"