64 Franz Liszt Quotes on Life & Music (COMPOSER)

Top 10 Most Famous Franz Liszt Quotes (BEST)

“Supreme serenity still remains the Ideal of great Art. The shapes and transitory forms of life are but stages toward this Ideal, which Christ’s religion illuminates with His divine light.”
Franz Liszt

Life is only a long and bitter suicide, and faith alone can transform this suicide into a sacrifice.

Sorrowful and great is the artist's destiny. — Sorrowful and great is the artist’s **destiny**.

Real men are sadly lacking in this world, for when they are put to the test they prove worthless.

I carry a deep sadness of the heart which must now and then break out in sound.

“Broad paths are open to every endeavor, and a sympathetic recognition is assured to every one who consecrates his art to the divine services of a conviction of a consciousness.”
Franz Liszt

Companions, in misery and worse, that is what we all are, and to try to change this substantially avails us nothing. — **Companions**, in misery and worse, that is what we all are, and to try to **change** this substantially avails us nothing.

Truth is a great flirt. — **Truth** is a great flirt.

Wasting time is one of the worst faults of the world. Life is so short, every moment is so precious and yet, we live as if life will never end.

Brahms' Variations are better than mine, but mine were written before his. — Brahms’ Variations are better than mine, but mine were written before his.

13 Thought-Provoking Franz Liszt Quotes

“If the empire were to collapse, I should personally feel extremely sad. I absolutely do not believe that the personal rule of Napoleon III has been corrupting and oppressive for France-but quite the contrary, it is demonstrably necessary, conciliatory, progressive, and generally intelligent and democratic in the best sense of the word.”
Franz Liszt

Beware of missing chances; otherwise it may be altogether too late some day. — Beware of missing **chances**; otherwise it may be altogether too late some day.

I foster a sorrowful conception of affection. Make no sacrifices.

“My piano is to me what a ship is to the sailor, what a steed is to the Arab. It is the intimate personal depository of everything that stirred wildly in my brain during the most impassioned days of my youth. It was there that all my wishes, all my dreams, all my joys, and all my sorrows lay.”
Franz Liszt

The supreme harmony of the cosmos is selected in the harmony of the spirit. — The supreme **harmony** of the cosmos is selected in the harmony of the spirit.

A person of any mental quality has ideas of his own. This is common sense.

“My mind and fingers have worked like the damned. Homer, the Bible, Plato, Locke, Lamartine, Chateaubriand, Beethoven, Bach, Hummel, Mozart, Weber are all around me. I study them. I devour them with fury.”
Franz Liszt

The new Steinway grand is a glorious masterpiece in power, sonority, singing quality, and perfect harmonic effects, affording delight even to my old piano-weary fingers.

In life one must decide whether to conjugate the verb to have or the verb to be.

You cannot imagine how it spoils one to have been a child prodigy. — You cannot **imagine** how it spoils one to have been a child prodigy.

Among artists there is not the division of professors and non-professors. They are only artists - or they are not. — Among artists there is not the division of professors and non-professors. They are only artists – or they are not.

They will not carry me in triumph across the Capitol, but the time will come when my works will be acknowledged.

What is life but a series of preludes to that unknown song whose initial solemn note is tolled by Death — What is life but a series of preludes to that unknown song whose initial solemn note is tolled by **Death**?

15 Wise Franz Liszt Quotes About Music

“For the virtuoso, musical works are in fact nothing but tragic and moving materializations of his emotions; he is called upon to make them speak, weep, sing and sigh, to recreate them in accordance with his own consciousness. In this way he, like the composer, is a creator, for he must have within himself those passions that he wishes to bring so intensely to life.”
Franz Liszt

Music embodies feeling without forcing it to contend and combine with thought, as it is forced in most arts and especially in the art of words. — **Music** embodies feeling without forcing it to contend and combine with thought, as it is forced in most arts and especially in the art of words.

Inspiration is enough to give expression to the tone in singing, especially when the song is without words.

Those musical works which are in a general sense following a programme must take effect on imagination and emotion, independent of any programme. — Those musical works which are in a general sense following a programme must take effect on imagination and emotion, **independent** of any programme.

In Hungary all native music, in its origin, is divided naturally into melody destined for song or melody for the dance. — In Hungary all native music, in its origin, is divided naturally into melody destined for song or melody for the **dance**.

The character of instrumental music lets the emotions radiate and shine in their own character without presuming to display them as real or imaginary representations. — The **character** of instrumental music lets the emotions radiate and shine in their own character without presuming to display them as real or imaginary representations.

My sole ambition as a composer is to hurl my javelin into the infinite space of the future. — My sole **ambition** as a composer is to hurl my javelin into the infinite space of the **future**.

Music is never stationary; successive forms and styles are only like so many resting-places - like tents pitched and taken down again on the road to the Ideal. — Music is never stationary; successive forms and styles are only like so many resting-places – like tents pitched and taken down again on the road to the Ideal.

All beautiful music must be first rate and always satisfy the absolute rules of music which are not to be violated or prescribed. — All **beautiful** music must be first rate and always satisfy the absolute rules of music which are not to be violated or prescribed.

In instrumental music I am a réactionnaire, a conservative. I dislike everything that requires verbal explanations beyond the actual sounds.

If it had not been for music I should have devoted myself entirely to the church and would have become a Franciscan. — If it had not been for music I should have **devoted** myself entirely to the church and would have become a Franciscan.

Let us think seriously of establishing a National Conservatory of Music representative of Hungary's artistic culture. — Let us think seriously of establishing a National Conservatory of Music representative of Hungary’s artistic **culture**.

Seek the renewal of music through its inner union with poetry. — Seek the renewal of music through its inner union with **poetry**.

Oral musical traditions are rooted in assured and scrupulous faith.

The first impulse of a great number of civilized musicians is to protest our declaration that the music in Hungary belongs to the Gypsies.

2 Franz Liszt Quotes About Conductors

I find little in the works of Beethoven, Berlioz, Wagner and others when they are led by a conductor who functions like a windmill.

The principal task of a conductor is not to put himself in evidence but to disappear behind his functions as much as possible. We are pilots, not servants.

4 Franz Liszt Quotes on Performance

“We need improvement in the style of performance. There is no more advantage in a musician who plays and conducts than in one who is only a beater of rhythm.”
Franz Liszt

A theatre receives recognition through its initiative, which is indispensable for first-rate performances.

As an artist, you do not rake in a million marks without performing some sacrifice on the altar of Art.

“Without any assistance whatever, I founded a school in Weimar in 10 years. Only I could perform certain works with the scanty means that I dared not ask anyone else to work with.”
Franz Liszt

3 Franz Liszt Quotes About Gypsies

“As the mother teaches her children how to express themselves in their language, so one Gypsy musician teaches the other. They have never shown any need for notation.”
Franz Liszt

The music of the Gypsies belongs in the sphere of improvisation rather than in any other, without which it would have no power to exist.

It is impossible to imagine a more complete fusion with nature than that of the Gypsy. — It is impossible to imagine a more complete fusion with **nature** than that of the Gypsy.

3 Franz Liszt Quotes About Love

When you write the story of two happy lovers, let the story be set on the banks of Lake Como.

Music is the heart of life. She speaks love; without it, there is no possible good and with it everything is beautiful.

I love you sometimes foolishly and at these moments I do not understand that I could not, would not, and should not be so absorbing a thought for you as you are for me.

2 Franz Liszt Quotes About Jews

“The day will come when all nations amidst which the Jews are dwelling will have to raise the question of their wholesale expulsion, a question which will be one of life or death, good health or chronic disease, peaceful existence or perpetual social fever.”
Franz Liszt

“The Jew continues to monopolize money, and he loosens or strangles the throat of the state with the loosening or strengthening of his purse strings. He has empowered himself with the engines of the press, which he uses to batter at the foundations of society. He is at the bottom of every enterprise that will demolish first of all thrones, afterwards the altar, afterwards civil law.”
Franz Liszt

2 Franz Liszt Quotes About Politics

I am not fond of speaking about politics because I don't have in my possession an army of 200,000 soldiers. — I am not fond of speaking about politics because I don’t have in my possession an army of 200,000 soldiers.

As for my political opinions, I have none and shall have none until I have half a million bayonets to back them up.

10 Franz Liszt Quotes That Will Make You Think

“In writing a few words of Preface I wish to express, first and foremost, my appreciation of the extreme care and conscientiousness with which La Mara has prepared these volumes.”
Franz Liszt