Richard Wagner Quotes

“I am writing Parsifal only for my wife - if I had to depend on the German spirit, I should have nothing more to say.”

“The language of tones belongs equally to all mankind, and melody is the absolute language in which the musician speaks to every heart.”

“From its first faint glimmerings, History shews Man's constant progress as a beast of prey. As such he conquers every land, subdues the fruit-fed races, founds mighty realms by subjugating other subjugators, forms states and sets up civilisations, to enjoy his prey at rest.”

“Though German art can never be Bavarian, but simply German, yet Munich is the capital of this German Art; here, under shelter of a Prince who kindles my enthusiasm, to feel myself a native and member of the people was, to me, the homeless wanderer, a deep, a genuine need.”

“Whatever my passions demand of me, I become for the time being - musician, poet, director, author, lecturer or anything else.”

“The patriot subordinates himself to his State in order to raise it above all other States and thus, as it were, to find his personal sacrifice repaid with ample interest through the might and greatness of his fatherland.”

“Here, everything is tragic through and through, and the will, that fain would shape a world according to its wish, at last can reach no greater satisfaction than the breaking of itself in dignified annulment.”

“Certain things in Mozart will and can never be excelled.”

“A political man is disgusting, but a political wife, horrible.”

“I know nothing at all about music.”

“I am fond of them, of the inferior beings of the abyss, of those who are full of longing.”

“The long-term vision is to replace, repair and regenerate failing tissues and organs with the materials of tissues and organs. It's still 'out there,' but it's possible to put together a grant proposal now that doesn't sound completely crazy.”

“Achievements, seldom credited to their source, are the result of unspeakable drudgery and worries.”

“I know absolutely nothing about music.”

“Whether government finances its added spending by increasing taxes, by borrowing, or by inflating the currency, the added spending will be offset by reduced private spending. Furthermore, private spending is generally more efficient than the government spending that would replace it because people act more carefully when they spend their own money than when they spend other people's money.”

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

“One siupreme fact which I have discovered is that it is not willpower, but fantasy and imagination that ceates. Imagination is the creative force. Imagination creates reality.”

“Many's the man/ who thought himself wise/ but what he needed/ he did not know.”

“Imagination creates reality.”

“The essence of higher instrumental music lays herein that one is able to express in tones that what one is unable to say in words.”