To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also.
- Igor Stravinsky
Effort, Merit, Also, Duck
I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge.
- Igor Stravinsky
My Life, Through, Learned, Chiefly
A plague on eminence! I hardly dare cross the street anymore without a convoy, and I am stared at wherever I go like an idiot member of a royal family or an animal in a zoo; and zoo animals have been known to die from stares.
- Igor Stravinsky
Die, Been, Plague, Royal Family
I was born out of due time in the sense that by temperament and talent I should have been more suited for the life of a small Bach, living in anonymity and composing regularly for an established service and for God.
- Igor Stravinsky
Small, Been, Established, Suited
The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one's self. And the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution.
- Igor Stravinsky
Execution, More, Obtain, Constraint
The Church knew what the psalmist knew: Music praises God. Music is well or better able to praise him than the building of the church and all its decoration; it is the Church's greatest ornament.
- Igor Stravinsky
Church, Him, Knew, Decoration
I haven't understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it.
- Igor Stravinsky
Music, My Life, Bar, Understood
My music is best understood by children and animals.
- Igor Stravinsky
Music, Children, Best, Understood
I am an inventor of music.
- Igor Stravinsky
Music, I Am, Am, Inventor
Conductors' careers are made for the most part with 'Romantic' music. 'Classic' music eliminates the conductor; we do not remember him in it.
- Igor Stravinsky
Conductor, Made, Part, Conductors
Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal.
- Igor Stravinsky
Art, Artists, Steal, Lesser
Music is given to us with the sole purpose of establishing an order in things, including, and particularly, the coordination between man and time.
- Igor Stravinsky
Including, Sole, Given, Order
In order to create there must be a dynamic force, and what force is more potent than love?
- Igor Stravinsky
Love, More, Potent, Order
I know that the twelve notes in each octave and the variety of rhythm offer me opportunities that all of human genius will never exhaust.
- Igor Stravinsky
Will, Rhythm, Notes, Exhaust
The principle of the endless melody is the perpetual becoming of a music that never had any reason for starting, any more than it has any reason for ending.
- Igor Stravinsky
Reason, Becoming, Principle, Starting
Why is it that whenever I hear a piece of music I don't like, it's always by Villa-Lobos?
- Igor Stravinsky
Music, Always, Whenever, Hear
A good composer does not imitate; he steals.
- Igor Stravinsky
Good, Composer, Does, Steals
Money may kindle, but it cannot by itself, and for very long, burn.
- Igor Stravinsky
Burn, Very, Itself, Kindle
Sins cannot be undone, only forgiven.
- Igor Stravinsky
Forgiveness, Only, Forgiven, Undone
Harpists spend 90 percent of their lives tuning their harps and 10 percent playing out of tune.
- Igor Stravinsky
Tuning, Lives, Spend, Harp
I am in the present. I cannot know what tomorrow will bring forth. I can know only what the truth is for me today. That is what I am called upon to serve, and I serve it in all lucidity.
- Igor Stravinsky
Tomorrow, Will, Bring, Present
The trouble with music appreciation in general is that people are taught to have too much respect for music they should be taught to love it instead.
- Igor Stravinsky
Love, Appreciation, Too Much, To Love
What gives the artist real prestige is his imitators.
- Igor Stravinsky
Artist, Real, His, Imitators
The real composer thinks about his work the whole time; he is not always conscious of this, but he is aware of it later when he suddenly knows what he will do.
- Igor Stravinsky
Will, Always, Composer, Conscious
Just as appetite comes by eating, so work brings inspiration, if inspiration is not discernible at the beginning.
- Igor Stravinsky
Work, Beginning, Brings, Appetite
Is it not by love alone that we succeed in penetrating to the very essence of being?
- Igor Stravinsky
Love, Alone, Very, Penetrating
Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end.
- Igor Stravinsky
Music, Pieces, Too, Finish
Film music should have the same relationship to the film drama that somebody's piano playing in my living room has on the book I am reading.
- Igor Stravinsky
Book, Living, Film Music, Piano
What force is more potent than love?
- Igor Stravinsky
Love, More, Potent, Force
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