Quotes By Gustav Mahler

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

I am hitting my head against the walls, but the walls are giving way.

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

An operetta is simply a small and gay opera.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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