Gustav Mahler Quotes

Powerful Gustav Mahler for Daily Growth

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

- Gustav Mahler

Always, Idle, Let Us, Remains

Even if people censure me, they should do so hat in hand.

- Gustav Mahler

Me, Should, Even, Censure

I am thrice homeless, as a native of Bohemia in Austria, as an Austrian among Germans, and as a Jew throughout the world. Everywhere an intruder, never welcomed.

- Gustav Mahler

Homeless, Bohemia, Am, Native

There is a world of difference between a Mahler eighth note and a normal eighth note.

- Gustav Mahler

World, Normal, Note, Eighth

It's not just a question of conquering a summit previously unknown, but of tracing, step by step, a new pathway to it.

- Gustav Mahler

Question, New, Tracing, Unknown

It should be one's sole endeavor to see everything afresh and create it anew.

- Gustav Mahler

See, Endeavor, Sole, Anew

What I wanted and what I visualized while composing has not always been realized.

- Gustav Mahler

Always, Been, Wanted, Visualized

Never let oneself be guided by the opinion of one's contemporaries. Continue steadfastly on one's way.

- Gustav Mahler

Never, Continue, Guided

I live like a Hottentot. I cannot exchange one sensible word with anyone.

- Gustav Mahler

Like, Cannot, Anyone, Sensible

Behind me the branches of a wasted and sterile existence are cracking.

- Gustav Mahler

Behind, Wasted, Sterile, Cracking

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

- Gustav Mahler

Gift, Signs, Melodic, Invention

When I have reached a summit, I leave it with great reluctance, unless it is to reach for another, higher one.

- Gustav Mahler

Reach, Leave, Unless, Reluctance

The real art of conducting consists in transitions.

- Gustav Mahler

Music, Art, Consists, Transitions

All that is not perfect down to the smallest detail is doomed to perish.

- Gustav Mahler

Perfect, Perish, Smallest, Doomed

A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything.

- Gustav Mahler

World, Like, Contain, Symphony

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.

- Gustav Mahler

Star, Seduced, Guiding, Applause

In its beginnings, music was merely chamber music, meant to be listened to in a small space by a small audience.

- Gustav Mahler

Music, Small, Meant, Meant To Be

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.

- Gustav Mahler

Young, Very, Had, Great Talent

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

- Gustav Mahler

Never, Pose, Beg, Assume

I was a crazy young man who let himself be blinded by his passions and obeyed only the impulses of the moment.

- Gustav Mahler

Moment, Young, Himself, Passions

If you think you're boring your audience, go slower not faster.

- Gustav Mahler

Think, Audience, Boring, Slower

You must renounce all superficiality, all convention, all vanity and delusion.

- Gustav Mahler

Delusion, Must, Convention, Superficiality

Beauty and fullness of tone can be achieved by having the whole orchestra play with high clarinets and a carefully selected number of piccolos.

- Gustav Mahler

Beauty, Play, Having, Orchestra

The spirit can assert itself only through the medium of clear form.

- Gustav Mahler

Through, Itself, Form, Assert

Spring won't let me stay in this house any longer! I must get out and breathe the air deeply again.

- Gustav Mahler

Nature, Air, Again, Breathe

An operetta is simply a small and gay opera.

- Gustav Mahler

Small, Opera, Simply, Gay

I have become a different person. I don't know whether this person is better, he certainly is not happier.

- Gustav Mahler

Better, Happier, Certainly, Different Person

It is easier to achieve a desired result in short pieces.

- Gustav Mahler

Result, Pieces, Desired, Easier

Don't bother looking at the view - I have already composed it.

- Gustav Mahler

View, Looking, Bother, Composed

The further the music develops, the more complex the apparatus used by the composer to express his thoughts becomes.

- Gustav Mahler

Music, Thoughts, His, Further

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