Gustav Mahler Quotes

Here, we’ve compiled a list of the best Gustav Mahler Quotes. Let’s look at these pieces of wisdom. We definitely have something to learn from them!

1
If I weren’t the way I am, I shouldn’t write my symphonies.
Gustav Mahler
2
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
3
The real art of conducting consists in transitions.
Gustav Mahler
4
If I weren’t the way I am, I shouldn’t write my symphonies.
Gustav Mahler
5
Discipline, work. Work, discipline.
Gustav Mahler
6
I have become a different person. I don’t know whether this person is better, he certainly is not happier.
Gustav Mahler
7
Melodic invention is one of the surest signs of a divine gift.
Gustav Mahler
8
Spring won’t let me stay in this house any longer! I must get out and breathe the air deeply again.
Gustav Mahler
9
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
10
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
11
I beg of you… never assume an inner or an outer pose, never a disguise.
Gustav Mahler
12
An operetta is simply a small and gay opera.
Gustav Mahler
13
Spring won’t let me stay in this house any longer! I must get out and breathe the air deeply again.
Gustav Mahler
14
The real art of conducting consists in transitions.
Gustav Mahler
15
The further the music develops, the more complex the apparatus used by the composer to express his thoughts becomes.
Gustav Mahler
16
I was a crazy young man who let himself be blinded by his passions and obeyed only the impulses of the moment.
Gustav Mahler
17
What I wanted and what I visualized while composing has not always been realized.
Gustav Mahler
18
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
19
I beg of you… never assume an inner or an outer pose, never a disguise.
Gustav Mahler
20
Never let oneself be guided by the opinion of one’s contemporaries. Continue steadfastly on one’s way.
Gustav Mahler
21
It is easier to achieve a desired result in short pieces.
Gustav Mahler
22
Behind me the branches of a wasted and sterile existence are cracking.
Gustav Mahler
23
When I have reached a summit, I leave it with great reluctance, unless it is to reach for another, higher one.
Gustav Mahler
24
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
25
The spirit can assert itself only through the medium of clear form.
Gustav Mahler
26
Destiny smiles upon me but without making me the least bit happier.
Gustav Mahler
27
The call of love sounds very hollow among these immobile rocks.
Gustav Mahler
28
Even if people censure me, they should do so hat in hand.
Gustav Mahler
29
In its beginnings, music was merely chamber music, meant to be listened to in a small space by a small audience.
Gustav Mahler
30
What I wanted and what I visualized while composing has not always been realized.
Gustav Mahler
31
I hope you will no longer accuse me of a lack of delicacy. as I now count on your understanding.
Gustav Mahler
32
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
33
I live like a Hottentot. I cannot exchange one sensible word with anyone.
Gustav Mahler
34
Destiny smiles upon me but without making me the least bit happier.
Gustav Mahler
35
The spirit can assert itself only through the medium of clear form.
Gustav Mahler
36
You must renounce all superficiality, all convention, all vanity and delusion.
Gustav Mahler
37
Don’t bother looking at the view – I have already composed it.
Gustav Mahler
38
I have become a different person. I don’t know whether this person is better, he certainly is not happier.
Gustav Mahler
39
It is easier to achieve a desired result in short pieces.
Gustav Mahler
40
A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything.
Gustav Mahler
41
Don’t bother looking at the view – I have already composed it.
Gustav Mahler
42
If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music.
Gustav Mahler
43
An operetta is simply a small and gay opera.
Gustav Mahler
44
You must renounce all superficiality, all convention, all vanity and delusion.
Gustav Mahler
45
In the theatrical works we love and admire the most, the ending of the drama generally takes place offstage.
Gustav Mahler
46
It should be one’s sole endeavor to see everything afresh and create it anew.
Gustav Mahler
47
I don’t let myself get carried away by my own ideas – I abandon 19 out of 20 of them every day.
Gustav Mahler
48
It should be one’s sole endeavor to see everything afresh and create it anew.
Gustav Mahler
49
I don’t let myself get carried away by my own ideas – I abandon 19 out of 20 of them every day.
Gustav Mahler
50
Even if people censure me, they should do so hat in hand.
Gustav Mahler