Bruno Walter
Our inmost yearning, our deep desire for harmony in an extra-musical, transcendental sense feels affirmed, confirmed and calmed by music, and in this sense music seems to me a message a lofty ethical message that brings good tidings to the ethical part of our being from the mysteries of the world of sound.
Napolean is dead - but Beethoven lives.
Music springs from and is replenished by a hidden source which lies outside the world or reality. Music ever spoke to me of a mysterious world beyond, which moved my heart deeply and eloquently intimated its transcendental nature.
For the works of the creative spirit last, they are essentially imperishable, while the world-stirring historical activities of even the most eminent men are circumscribed by time.
By concentrating on precision, one arrives at technique, but by concentrating on technique one does not arrive at precision.