Music, art and literature Quotes

When nations grow old, the arts grow cold and commerce settles on every tree.

Where painting is weakest, namely, in the expression of the highest moral and spiritual ideas, there music is sublimely strong.

Bang-whang-whang goes the drum, tootle-tetootle the fife; no keeping one's haunches still: it's the greatest pleasure in life

One may do whatever one likes in art: the only thing is to make sure that one does not like it

When music technology takes the place of musicianship, it's time to pull the plug

Who hears music, feels his solitude peopled at once

The Opera is obviously the first draft of a fine spectacle; it suggests the idea of one.

It requires more than mere genius to be an author

There are certain things in which mediocrity is not to be endured, such as poetry, music, painting, public speaking

A mediocre mind thinks it writes divinely; a good mind thinks it writes reasonably

When a book raises your spirit, and inspires you with noble and courageous feelings, seek for no other rule to judge the event by; it is good and made by a good workman

“Literature - the expression of a nation's mind in writing

If I had listened to the critics I'd have died drunk in the gutter

An artist's flair is sometimes worth a scientist's brains

A book ought to be the ax to break the frozen sea within us

There is nothing new in art except talent

Life exists for the love of music or beautiful things.

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author

Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.

An artist will betray himself by some sort of sincerity