“Politics in the middle of things of the imagination is like a pistol shot in the middle of a concert.”

To seem sorrowful is not in good taste: You’re supposed to seem bored.

The idea which tyrants find most useful is the idea of God.

I think no woman I have had ever gave me so sweet a moment, or at so light a price, as the moment I owe to a newly heard musical phrase.

I see but one rule: to be clear.

Every great action is extreme when it is undertaken. Only after it has been accomplished does it seem possible to those creatures of more common stuff.

A woman of generous character will sacrifice her life a thousand times over for her lover, but will break with him for ever over a question of pride.

God’s only excuse is that he does not exist.

Indeed, man has two different beings inside him. What devil thought of that malicious touch?

Women are always eagerly on the lookout for any emotion.

In our calling, we have to choose; we must make our fortune either in this world or in the next, there is no middle way.

If you don’t love me, it does not matter, anyway I can love for both of us.

Almost all our misfortunes in life come from the wrong notions we have about the things that happen to us.

But, if I sample this pleasure so prudently and circumspectly, it will no longer be a pleasure.

People happy in love have an air of intensity.

This is the curse of our age, even the strangest aberrations are no cure for boredom.

Who knows whether it is not true that phosphorus and mind are not the same thing?

But I did become fairly proficient as a pianist and my teachers felt I had talent and wanted me to become a good concert pianist and earn my living that way.

If youre a singer, you do concerts, and you get that interaction with fans and see what cities in what part of the world come out to see you.

People working at the arenas are not just depending on one or two concerts.

I did a whole concert in Atlanta with my fly open, and I had a black suit on and a white shirt. My white shirt was protruding from the fly.

I did a concert at five years old in the garden of one of the church members, and we raised some money to buy a new piano in our little church.

I missed out on everything. Sometimes on the street I see teenagers hanging out and going to the movies, going to concerts, and I get so jealous.

Harmony is pure love, for love is a concerto.

Even at concerts people pay good money for, instead of a three-dollar cover charge, they talk through the whole thing.