A lucky person gets up in the morning, puts both feet on the floor, knows what they're about to do and thinks it still matters.
You cannot imagine how it spoils one to have been a child prodigy.
I am not fond of speaking about politics because I don't have in my possession an army of 200,000 soldiers.
As for famous men who were not artists, I am beginning to be tired of them. Those poor little scoundrels who are called great men fill me with nothing but overwhelming horror.
The principal task of a conductor is not to put himself in evidence but to disappear behind his functions as much as possible. We are pilots, not servants.
Brahms' Variations are better than mine, but mine were written before his.
I did not compose my work as one might put on a church vestment. . . rather it sprung from the truly fervent faith of my heart, such as I have felt it since my childhood.
The mind's first step to self-awareness must be through the body.
Even chimps understand the concept - if a troop of chimps enters a fruit tree, they will only pick the fruits that are ripe and leave the others growing. That is sustainability.
A country that demands moral perfection in its foreign policy will achieve neither perfection nor security
Too many cars, too many factories, too much detergent, too much pesticides, multiplying contrails, inadequate sewage treatment plants, too little water, too much carbon dioxide - all can be traced easily to too many people.