Robert Schumann Quotations

Nature best teaches how to pray, and how to reverence all the gifts the Almighty has given us. She is like a vast outspread handkerchief, embroidered with God's eternal name, on which we may dry alike our tears of sorrow and of joy; she turns weeping into ecstasy, and fills our hearts with speechless, quiet reverence and resignation.

We may be sure that a genius like Mozart, were he born today, would write concertos like Chopin and not like Mozart.

We have learned to express the more delicate nuances of feeling by penetrating more deeply into the mysteries of harmony.

Music induces nightingales to sing, pug dogs to yelp.

Only when the form grows clear to you, will the spirit become so too.

My heart pounds sickeningly and I turn pale... I often feel as if I were dead... I seem to be losing my mind.

Thus it is ever in life. The aims we once pursued no longer satisfy us; we aim, we strive, we aspire, until sight fails, and mind and body find rest in the grave.

That first concept is alway the most naturally and best. The mind errs, the emotion never.

When young, one learns his craftsmanship, may become a young master, and it is youth that is most auspicious for developing certain skills.

Confidence and courage are special skills to the art ... Within the four walls of his study, the artist should be modest, work diligently and conscientiously. While for the public, he'll show himself audacious, yes even into cheerful boldness. And so a new public's darling has arisen.