Richard Wagner

“To be a German means to do a thing for its own sake.”

“I believe in God, Mozart and Beethoven.”

“I am the most German of men, I am the German spirit.”

“Joy is not in things; it is in us.”

“The oldest, truest, most beautiful organ of music, the origin to which alone our music owes its being, is the human voice.”

“Music is the inarticulate speech of the heart, which cannot be compressed into words, because it is infinite.”

“The most perfect art-work is the one which is the most completely human, the one which will best correspond to all the needs of man's nature.”

“I write music with an exclamation point!”

“The first and chief thing is to be in earnest.”

“Genius is that which generates, which gives birth to something new.”

“Imagination creates reality.”

“I am convinced that there are universal currents of Divine Thought vibrating the ether everywhere and that any who can feel these vibrations is inspired.”

“Where the speech of man stops short, there music’s reign begins.”

“The artist has the right to be modest, but not the right to be humble.”