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One’s belief that one is sincere is not so dangerous as one’s conviction that one is right. We all feel we are right; but we felt the same way twenty years ago and today we know we weren’t always right.

Igor Stravinsky

We cannot describe sound, but we cannot forget it either.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Forget Music Sound
In order to create there must be a dynamic force, and what force is more potent than love?
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Creation Force Love Order Reproduction
Music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all. Music expresses itself.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Essential Expression Music Nature
Mediocrity borrows, genius steals.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Average Genius Steal
Art postulates communion, and the artist has an imperative need to make others share the joy which he experiences himself.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Art Artist Experience Himself Joy Share Unity
The principle of the endless melody is the perpetual becoming of a music that never had any reason for starting, any more than it has any reason for ending.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

End Music Principle Reason Start
Silence will save me from being wrong (and foolish), but it will also deprive me of the possibility of being right.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Possible Right Save Silence Wrong
The faculty of creating is never given to us all by itself. It always goes hand in hand with the gift of observation.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Artist Creation Gift Hands Observation Talent
Music is given to us with the sole purpose of establishing an order in things, including, and particularly, the coordination between man and time.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Establishment Man Music Ourselves Purpose Time
It is my conviction that the public always shows itself more honest in its spontaneity than do those who officially set themselves up as judges of works of art.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Always Art Honesty Judgement Public Work
Revolution means turning the wheel.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

One Liner Revolution
I never am sea sick, never. I am sea drunk!
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Myself Sea Sick
It’s one of nature’s way that we often feel closer to distant generations than to the generation immediately preceding us.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Feeling Generation Nature Way
Silence, which will save from shame, will also deprive me of fame.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Deep Fame Myself Risk Save Shame Silence
To be deprived of art and left alone with philosophy is to be close to Hell.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Alone Art Close Hell Philosophy
Harpists spend 90 percent of their lives tuning their harps and 10 percent playing out of tune.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Instrument Live Music Play Silence
Look for the music on all things, and life will be a symphony of joy. My music is best understood by children and animals.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Animal Children Life Music Myself Symphony Understand
Composition is selective improvisation.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Improve One Liner Selective
I know that the twelve notes in each octave and the variety of rhythm offer me opportunities that all of human genius will never exhaust.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Exhaust Genius Human Myself Rhythm Willing
Music is the sole domain in which man realizes the present.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Man Music Present Realization
Music is the coordination between man and time.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Man Music Time
Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

End Music Pieces Song
We can neither put back the clock nor slow down our forward speed, and as we are already flying pilotless, on instrument controls, it is even too late to ask where we are going.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Clock Control Fly Instrument Journey Slow Time
There is music wherever there is rhythm, as there is life wherever there beats a pulse.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Life Lyrics Music Nature
The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one’s self. And the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Freedom Impose Oneself Precision Service
Invention presupposes imagination but should not be confused with it.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Confusion Imagination Invention
The one true comment on a piece of music is another piece of music.
IGOR STRAVINSKY

Comment Music Pieces True

One’s belief that one is sincere is not so dangerous as one’s conviction that one is right. We all feel we are right; but we felt the same way twenty years ago and today we know we weren’t always right.

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One’s belief that one is sincere is not so dangerous as one’s conviction that one is right. We all feel we are right; but we felt the same way twenty years ago and today we know we weren’t always right.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Igor Stravinsky Quotes