Tony

“A love of classical music is only partially a natural response to hearing the works performed; it also must come about by a decision to listen carefully, to pay close attention, a decision inevitably motivated by the cultural and social prestige of the art.”
― Charles Rosen

“Those who believe Europe is for the world have never explained why this process should be one way: why Europeans going anywhere else in the world is colonialism whereas the rest of the world coming to Europe is just and fair.”
― Douglas Murray, The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam

“A cough is the basic sign of inattention. Musicians never, in my experience, cough when playing in public.”
― Charles Rosen, Piano Notes: The World of the Pianist

“On January 18, 1897, Indiana state representative Taylor I. Record argued in favor of changing the value of pi. Pi, which can be rounded to 3.14159, is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. Tyler believed that the number was inconveniently long; in House Bill 246, he asked that it be rounded up to 3.2. The bill passed the House but was defeated in the Senate when the chairman of Purdue University’s math department successfully pleaded that it would make Indiana a national laughingstock. The value of pi in Indiana remains the same as in every other state.”
― Paul A. Offit, Do You Believe in Magic?: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine