Gustav Mahler Quotes

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

An operetta is simply a small and gay opera.
Gustav Mahler

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

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

Destiny smiles upon me but without making me the least bit happier.
Gustav Mahler

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

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

I don't let myself get carried away by my own ideas - I abandon 19 out of 20 of them every day.
Gustav Mahler

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

I hope you will no longer accuse me of a lack of delicacy. as I now count on your understanding.
Gustav Mahler

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

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

If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music.
Gustav Mahler

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

In the theatrical works we love and admire the most, the ending of the drama generally takes place offstage.
Gustav Mahler

It is strange how one feels drawn forward without knowing at first where one is going.
Gustav Mahler

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

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

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

The impressions of the spriritual experiences gave my future life its form and content.
Gustav Mahler

The longer you live and the more you learn, the more clearly you will feel the difference between the few men who are truly great and the mere virtuosi.
Gustav Mahler

The real art of conducting consists in transitions.
Gustav Mahler

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

To judge a composer's work, one must consider it as a whole.
Gustav Mahler

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

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