56 Quotes by Franz Liszt

Sorrowful and great is the artist's destiny.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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