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

Sorrowful and great is the artist's destiny.

Mournful and yet grand is the destiny of the artist.

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.

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.