"Children are remarkable for their intelligence and ardour, for their curiosity and tolerance of shams, the clarity and ruthlessness of their vision."

"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad."

"The author of the Iliad is either Homer or, if not Homer, somebody else of the same name."

"Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him."

"There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self."

"Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities."

"If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience."

"Hell is full of musical amateurs."

"An intellectual snob is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture and not think of The Lone Ranger."

"Music is essentially useless, as life is: but both have an ideal extension which lends utility to its conditions."

"Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back and, instead of bleeding, he sings."

"Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence."