Category: General

  • Uniqueness

    “The more you like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique.” — Walt Disney L. Howes, “20 Lessons from Walt Disney on Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Chasing Your Dreams”, Forbes, 17 July 2012, https://www.forbes.com/sites/lewishowes/2012/07/17/20-business-quotes-and-lessons-from-walt-disney/?sh=4b3af9d44ba9, accessed 13 January 2022.

  • Weeds

    But weeds have this virtue: they are not easily discouraged; they never lose heart entirely; they die game. If they cannot have the best, they will take up with the poorest; if fortune is unkind to them today, they hope for better luck tomorrow; if they cannot lord it over a corn-hill, they will sit…

  • Look under your feet

    The lesson which life constantly repeats is to ‘look under your feet.’You are always nearer to the divine and the true sources of your power than you think.The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive.The great opportunity is where you are.Do not despise your own place and hour.Every place is under the stars.Every…

  • Each day, according to Goethe

    Every day one should at least hear one little song, read one good poem, see one fine painting and–if at all possible–speak a few sensible words. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Goethe, Johann (translated by Frederick Ungar & Heinz Goethe, Johann W., Frederick Ungar, and Heinz Norden). Goethe’s world view : presented in his reflections…

  • The land knows of its own beauty

    What is pertinent is the calmness of that beauty, its sense of restraint. It is as though the land knows of its own beauty, of its own greatness, and feels no need to shout it.” – Kazuo Ishiguro

  • There’s a crack in everything

    There is a crack, a crack in everythingThat’s how the light gets in. Leonard Cohen, “Anthem Related: “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in”: The story of Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem”

  • They who dream

    “They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.” — Edgar Allan Poe

  • Einstein as a musician

    “If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music… I get most joy in life out of music.” – Albert Einstein Cited in: Lyth, David (2019) The Road to Einstein’s Relativity. Boca Ranton:…

  • Understanding the rules

    “We think we understand the rules when we become adults but what we really experience is a narrowing of the imagination.” — David Lynch

  • Wisdom is perishable

    "Wisdom is perishable. Unlike information or knowledge, it cannot be stored in a computer or recorded in a book. It expires with each passing generation." – Sid Taylor Cited at: Quotations book  

  • Knowledge represents inner strength

    “Knowledge is not a passion from without the mind, but an active exertion of the inward strength, vigor and power of the mind, displaying itself from within.” – Ralph Cudworth, Treatise Concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality (1731)

  • The importance of rejuvenation

    "Human beings, by change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden." Johann Wolfgang Goethe, German writer, philosopher and scientist.

  • Trust yourself

    All this, my friend, will time provide, And of itself, itself will give; Soon as you in yourself confide, You know the way to live! — Mephistopheles to Faust Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust: A Tragedy, translated by Lewis Filmore, (London: William Smith, 1847), p. 79. First published in the German as Faust: eine Tragödie,…

  • Figaro and an egg

    “I always have a hard-boiled egg. A three-minute egg. Do you know how I time it? I bring it to the boil and then conduct the overture to The Marriage of Figaro. Three minutes exactly.” Sir John Barrirolli Cited in: The Music Lover’s Quotation Book. Ed. Kathleen Kimball, Robin Peterson & Kathleen Johnston. Toronto (Canada):…

  • Philosophy

    “Philosophy is doubt.” – Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, French writer Rosenberg, Max (1955) Introduction to Philosophy.  New York: Philosophical Library, p. 14.

  • Personality

    “Personality is to a man what perfume is to a flower.” – Charles M. Schwab, The Ten Commandments of Success

  • The significance of the individual

      “You are an extremely valuable, worthwhile, significant person even though your present circumstances may have you feeling otherwise.” – James Newmann, American mathematician

  • Hope

    “Hope is the dream of a soul awake.”— French proverb. R. A. Krieger, Civilization’s Quotations: Life’s Ideal, New York, Algora Publishing, 2002, p.151. 

  • Determination not to be hurried

    “Nothing can be more useful to a man than the determination not to be hurried.” – Henry David Thoreau

  • Success is a staircase

    “Success is not a doorway, it’s a staircase.” — Dottie Walters

  • The here and now

    “It is a mark of soulfulness to be present in the here and now. When we are present, we are not fabricating inner movies. We are seeing what is before us.” – John Bradshaw (1992) Creating Love: The Next Great Stage of Growth.  United States: Bantam Books, p.127.

  • Patience

    An ounce of patience is worth a pound of brains — Dutch proverb Henry Bonn. A polyglot of foreign proverbs.  London, Henry G. Bohn, 1857, p.315.

  • Harmony

    “You don’t get harmony when everybody sings the same note.” Doug Floyd, editorial editor of The Spokesman Review

  • Be a work of art

    “One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.” Oscar Wilde, Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young

  • Individuality

    “I may not be better than other people, but at least I’m different.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau – Franco-Swiss philosopher and writer.

  • The best of every man

    “I have believed the best of every man. And find that to believe is enough to make a bad man show him at his best, or even a good man swings his lantern higher.” – William Yeats, Deirdre

  • Men of genius

    “Men of genius are often dull and inert in society; as the blazing meteor, when it descends to earth, is only a stone.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1849), Kavanagh, London: George Slater, p.49.  https://books.google.com.au/books?id=i8ENAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false, accessed 4 September 2021.

  • A result of education

    “The highest result of education is tolerance.” – Helen Keller, Optimism (1903)

  • The prerequisites of a genius

    “Of the three prerequisites of genius; the first is soul; the second is soul; and the third is soul.” – Edwin Whipple, American essayist and critic Cited at: QuotationsBook

  • Happiness

    “Very little indeed is necessary for living a happy life” — Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor from 161-180 Marcus Aurelius (translated by George Long) The Thoughts of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Book VII, 67.  Digitally archived at: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Thoughts_of_the_Emperor_Marcus_Aurelius_Antoninus/Book_VII, accessed 10 September 2021. 

  • Growth by dreams

    We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter’s evening. Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them, nurse them through bad days till they bring them to…

  • Opportunities

    No man can tell what the future may bring forth, and small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises. —  Demosthenes, Ad Leptinem, 162 Harbottle, Thomas Benfield (1897) Dictionary of Quotations (Classical).  London: S. Sonnenschein & co, p. 51.  Digitally archived at https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofquot00harbiala/page/511/mode/2up, accessed 12 September 2021. 

  • It is who you are

    “Face the facts of being who you are, for that is what changes what you are.” Søren Kierkegaard, Danish writer. Cited at QuotationsBook  

  • Mastery

    “Mastery passes often for egotism.” — Johanne Goethe, German author Johanne Goethe (1906) The Maxisms and Relfections.  Translated by Bailey Saunders.  New York: The Macmillan Company.  Digitally archived at: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/33670/33670-h/33670-h.htm, accessed 12 Setpember 2021

  • The decentralization (or de-hallification) of classical music

    For generations, the main places to hear contemporary classical music have been the big institutions, primarily at downtown and university concert halls and opera houses, and sometimes in churches and other rather formal settings. That’s all changing. Young composers today are increasingly finding — or creating — outlets for their music in rock and jazz…

  • Learning

    “Learning makes a man fit company for himself.”   —  La Harpe Day, E. P. (1884) Day’s Collacon: An Encylopaedia of Prose Quotations.  International Printing and Publishing Office, p. 498.  Digitally archived at: https://books.google.com.au/books?id=Qo\_Mhkcu8iAC, accessed 8 September 2021. 

  • The greatest applause

    “The silence that accepts merit as the most natural thing in the world, is the highest applause.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson “An address delivered before the senior class in Divinity College, Cambridge, Sunday Evening, July 15, 1838”, The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, in 12 vols. Fireside Edition (Boston and New York, 1909). Vol. 1…

  • The making of heroes and cowards

    “Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes of men.” – Brooke Westcott, Bishop of Durham, scholar, theologian Cited at Quotations Book

  • A successful day

    “If I have been of service, if I have glimpsed more of the nature and essence of ultimate good, if I am inspired to reach wider horizons of thought and action, if I am at peace with myself, it has been a successful day.” Alex Noble, cited at Brainy Quote  

  • Music and identity

    “The more anonymous music is, the less likely people will be to feel attached it and to feel the need to support it. But when someone knows who you are, when you’re not just some disembodied vibrations in the air, they’re far more likely to stand behind you.” Isaac Schankler. “Beyond Sound and Science: Musicians,…

  • The health benefits of tuning a piano

    “Tuning a piano also tunes the brain, say researchers who have seen structural changes within the brains of professional piano tuners.” BBC News, 29 August 2012. Click here to view article  

  • NAXOS and the recording industry

    “There was a time, not so long ago, that Klaus Heymann was accused of trying to destroy the classical music industry. That was around the same time that the world realized that Naxos, Heymann’s budget-record label, was not just another series of CDs in the bargain bin. At first, nobody really knew what to make…

  • The value of education

    “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” Derek Bok, American lawyer and educator Cited at: QuotationsBook

  • The work of the individual

    “The work of the individual still remains the spark that moves mankind forward.” – Igor Sikorsky, Russian aviator

  • The illiterate of the future

    “The illiterate of the future are not those that cannot read or write. They are those that can not learn, unlearn, relearn.” -Alvin Toffler, American writer and futurist Cited at QuotationsBook

  • Quiet minds

    “Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.” Robert Louis Stevenson, author  

  • Loneliness versus solitude

    “Language has created the word loneliness to express the pain of being alone, and the word solitude to express the glory of being alone.” – Paul Johannes Tillich, German American theologian and philosopher

  • The current state of the recording industry

    Founder Klaus Heymann, founder of the successful NAXOS label, on the current state of the classical music recording industry: “We can’t live off CD sales anymore,” says the German-born Heymann, 75, speaking by phone from his base in Hong Kong. When Naxos began, Heymann proved that you could make money selling tens of thousands of…

  • Bugs Bunny can save classical music

    “The future of classical music lies with the younger generation, which must be weaned away from the cacophony of rock and the neon glitter of “American Idol”-type TV shows. Instead of dragging children to concerts, where they squirm with boredom, rent some old movies featuring soundtracks of classical music. Even toddlers can be exposed to…

  • Skepticism

    “Great intellects are skeptical.” – Friedrich Nietzsche, Antichrist, 54.  Digitally archived at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/19322/19322-h/19322-h.htm, accessed 12 September 2021

  • Knowledge of truth

    This knowledge of truth, combined with proper regard for it, and its faithful observance, constitutes true education. The mere stuffing of the mind with a knowledge of facts is not education. The mind must not only posses a knowledge of truth, but the soul must revere it, cherish it, love it as a priceless gem;…

  • LA no longer the center for film scoring

    “…a panel of experts warn that film, TV and videogame scoring continues to leave L.A. because producers are unwilling to meet union demands. “If work continues to dry up at the current rate, they speculated, one or more of the three remaining large scoring stages (Fox, Sony, Warner Bros.) could close “within the next two…