Quotes By Gustav Mahler

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

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.

To judge a composer's work, one must consider it as a whole.

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

Melodic invention is one of the surest signs of a divine gift.

An operetta is simply a small and gay opera.

If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music.

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.

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

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

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

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

Fortunately, something always remains to be harvested. So let us not be idle.

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

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

You must renounce all superficiality, all convention, all vanity and delusion.

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

All that is not perfect down to the smallest detail is doomed to perish.

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

In the theatrical works we love and admire the most, the ending of the drama generally takes place offstage.

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

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.

With the coming of spring, I am calm again.

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

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

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

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

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

It should be one's sole endeavor to see everything afresh and create it anew.