Quotes By Gustav Mahler

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

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

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.

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.

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

With the coming of spring, I am calm again.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

Discipline, work. Work, discipline.

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

If you think you're boring your audience, go slower not faster.

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

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

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

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

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.

In its beginnings, music was merely chamber music, meant to be listened to in a small space by a small audience.

The real art of conducting consists in transitions.

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

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