Gustav Mahler > Quotes

“Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire”
― 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

“I am hitting my head against the walls, but the walls are giving way.”
― Gustav Mahler

“But it's peculiar, as soon as I am in the midst of nature and by myself, everything that is base and trivial vanishes without trace. On such days nothing scares me; and this helps me again and again.”
― Gustav Mahler

“What is best in music is not to be found in the notes.”
― Gustav Mahler

“The important thing is never to let oneself be guided by the opinion of one's contemporaries; to continue steadfastly on one's way without
letting oneself be either defeated by failure or diverted by applause.”
― Gustav Mahler

“All that is not perfect down to the smallest detail is doomed to perish.”
― Gustav Mahler

“Man lives in greatest pain”
― Gustav Mahler

“If you think you are boring your audience, go slower not faster.”
― Gustav Mahler

“Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen,
Mit der ich sonst viele Zeit verdorben,
Sie hat so lange [von mir nichts]1 vernommen,
Sie mag wohl glauben, ich sei gestorben.

Es ist mir auch gar nichts daran gelegen,
Ob sie mich für gestorben hält,
Ich kann auch gar nichts sagen dagegen,
Denn wirklich bin ich gestorben der Welt.

Ich bin gestorben dem [Weltgewimmel]2,
Und ruh' in einem stillen Gebiet.
Ich leb' allein [in mir und meinem]3 Himmel,
In meinem Lieben, in meinem Lied.

I am lost to the world
with which I used to waste so much time,
It has heard nothing from me for so long
that it may very well believe that I am dead!

It is of no consequence to me
Whether it thinks me dead;
I cannot deny it,
for I really am dead to the world.

I am dead to the world's tumult,
And I rest in a quiet realm!
I live alone in my heaven,
In my love and in my song.”
― Mahler

“The important thing is never to let oneself be guided by the opinion of one's contemporaries; to continue steadfastly on one's way without letting oneself be either defeated by failure or diverted by applause.”
― Gustav Mahler

“Wenn die Welt einmal untergehen sollte, ziehe ich nach Wien, denn dort passiert alles fünfzig Jahre später.”
― 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

“Tradition ist die Weitergabe des Feuers, nicht die Anbetung der Asche”
― Gustav Mahler

“The dear earth everywhere
blossoms in spring and grows green anew!
Everywhere and forever blue is the horizon!
Forever ... Forever ...”
― Gustav Mahler

“Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.”
― Gustav Mahler

“A lime tree stood by the roadside,
Where I first found peace in sleep!
Under the lime tree
Which snowed its blossom on me,
I was not aware of how life hurts,
And all, all was well once more!
All! All!
Love and sorrow, and world and dream!”
― Gustav Mahler

“When a man, filled with a mixture of reverence and bewilderment, asks, “What on earth does this all mean?”, a child will answer him with the fourth movement [of his Fourth Symphony]: “This is the life of the Kingdom of Heaven.”
― Gustav Mahler