Top 58 Frederic Chopin Quotes
#1. Concerts are never real music, you have to give up the idea of hearing in them all the most beautiful things of art.
Frederic Chopin
#2. If the newspapers cut me up so much that I shall not venture before the world again, I have resolved to become a house painter; that would be as easy as anything else, and I should, at any rate, still be an artist!
Frederic Chopin
#3. Man is never always happy, and very often only a brief period of happiness is granted him in this world; so why escape from this dream which cannot last long?
Frederic Chopin
#4. Having nothing to do, I am correcting the Paris edition of Bach; not only the engraver's mistakes, but also the mistakes hallowed by those who are supposed to understand Bach (I have no pretensions to understand better, but I do think that sometimes I can guess).
Frederic Chopin
#6. To be a great composer requires immense experience ... One acquires this by listening not only to other men's work, but above all to one's own!
Frederic Chopin
#7. My piano has not yet arrived. How did you send it? By Marseilles or by Perpignan? I dream music but I cannot make any because here there are not any pianos ... in this respect this is a savage country.
Frederic Chopin
#8. The earth is suffocating ... Swear to make them cut me open, so that I won't be buried alive.
Frederic Chopin
#9. So, having dried my tear-swollen eyelids, I take up my pen to inquire of you, are you alive or did you die? If you are dead, please let me know, and I will tell the cook, for ever since she heard about it she has been saying her prayers.
Frederic Chopin
#10. Hats off, gentlemen - a genius! If the mighty autocrat of the north knew what a dangerous enemy threatened him in Chopin's works in the simple tunes of his mazurkas, he would forbid this music. Chopin's works are canons buried in flowers.
Frederic Chopin
#11. When one does a thing, it appears good, otherwise one would not write it. Only later comes reflection, and one discards or accepts the thing. Time is the best censor, and patience a most excellent teacher.
Frederic Chopin
#12. Oh, how hard it must be to die anywhere but in one's birthplace.
Frederic Chopin
#13. I don't know where there can be so many pianists as in Paris, so many asses and so many virtuosi.
Frederic Chopin
#14. I wish I could throw off the thoughts which poison my happiness, and yet I take a kind of pleasure in indulging them.
Frederic Chopin
#15. I really don't know whether any place contains more pianists than Paris, or whether you can find more asses and virtuosos anywhere.
Frederic Chopin
#16. England is so surrounded by the boredom of conventionalities, that it is all one to them whether music is good or bad, since they have to hear it from morning till night. For here they have flower-shows with music, dinners with music, sales with music ...
Frederic Chopin
#17. Yesterday's concert was a success. I hasten to let you know. I inform your Lordship that I was not a bit nervous and played as I play when I am alone. It went well ... and I had to come back and bow four times.
Frederic Chopin
#18. The Official Bulletin declared that the Poles should be as proud of me as the Germans are of Mozart; obvious nonsense.
Frederic Chopin
#19. All the same it is being said everywhere that I played too softly, or rather, too delicately for people used to the piano-pounding of the artists here.
Frederic Chopin
#20. Vienna is a handsome, lively city, and pleases me exceedingly.
Frederic Chopin
#21. I have met a great celebrity, Madame Dudevant, known as George Sand ... Her appearance is not to my liking. Indeed there is something about her which positively repels me ... What an unattractive person La Sand is ... Is she really a woman? I'm inclined to doubt it.
Frederic Chopin
#22. It is dreadful when something weighs on your mind, not to have a soul to unburden yourself to. You know what I mean. I tell my piano the things I used to tell you.
Frederic Chopin
#23. I feel like a novice, just as I felt before I knew anything of the keyboard. It is far too original, and I shall end up not being able to learn it myself.
Frederic Chopin
#24. Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.
Frederic Chopin
#25. The three most celebrated doctors on the island have been to see me. One sniffed at what I spat, the second tapped where I spat from, and the third sounded me and listened as I spat. The first said I was dead, the second that I was dying and the third that I'm going to die.
Frederic Chopin
#26. Sometimes I can only groan, and suffer, and pour out my despair at the piano!
Frederic Chopin
#27. Nothing is more beautiful than a guitar, except, possibly two.
Frederic Chopin
#28. Nothing is more odious than music without hidden meaning.
Frederic Chopin
#29. Bach is like an astronomer who, with the help of ciphers, finds the most wonderful stars ... Beethoven embraced the universe with the power of his spirit ... I do not climb so high. A long time ago I decided that my universe will be the soul and heart of man.
Frederic Chopin
#30. Chopin has done for the piano what Schubert has done for the voice.
Frederic Chopin
#31. My manuscripts sleep, while I cannot, for I am covered with poultices.
Frederic Chopin
#33. Nothing is more beautiful than the sound of the guitar.
Frederic Chopin
#34. I haven't heard anything so great for a long time; Beethoven snaps his fingers at the whole world ...
Frederic Chopin
#35. I am not fitted to give concerts. The audience intimidates me, I feel choked by its breath, paralyzed by its curious glances, struck dumb by all those strange faces.
Frederic Chopin
#36. I could express my feelings more easily if they could be put into the notes of music, but as the very best concert would not cover my affection for you, dear daddy, I must use the simple words of my heart, to lay before you my utmost gratitude and filial affection
Frederic Chopin
#37. I don't know how it is, but the Germans are amazed at me and I am amazed at them for finding anything to be amazed about.
Frederic Chopin
#38. The crowd intimidates me, its breath suffocates me. I feel paralyzed by its curious look, and the unknown faces make me dumb.
Frederic Chopin
#39. Oh, how miserable it is to have no one to share your sorrows and joys, and, when your heart is heavy, to have no soul to whom you can pour out your woes.
Frederic Chopin
#40. Simplicity is the highest goal, achievable when you have overcome all difficulties.
Frederic Chopin
#41. As something has involuntarily crept into my head through my eyes,I love to indulge it, even though it may be all wrong.
Frederic Chopin
#42. how dismal it is to have no one to go to in the morning to share one's griefs and joys; how hateful when something weighs on you and there's nowhere to lay it down. You know to what I refer. I often tell to my pianoforte what I want to tell to you.
Frederic Chopin
#43. As long as I have health and strength, I will gladly work all my days.
Frederic Chopin
#44. Time is the best of critics; and patience the best of teachers.
Frederic Chopin
#45. Bach is an astronomer, discovering the most marvellous stars. Beethoven challenges the universe. I only try to express the soul and the heart of man.
Frederic Chopin
#47. Here, waltzes are called works! And Strauss and Lanner, who play them for dancing, are called Kapellmeistern. This does not mean that everyone thinks like that; indeed, nearly everyone laughs about it; but only waltzes get printed.
Frederic Chopin
#48. They want me to give another concert but I have no desire to do so. You cannot imagine what a torture the three days before a public appearance are to me.
Frederic Chopin
#49. There are certain times when I feel more inspired, filled with a strong power that forces me to listen to my inner voice, and when I feel more need than ever for a Pleyel piano.
Frederic Chopin
#53. Every difficulty slurred over will be a ghost to disturb your repose later on.
Frederic Chopin
#54. Mozart encompasses the entire domain of musical creation,
but I've got only the keyboard in my poor head.
Frederic Chopin
#55. The last thing is simplicity. After having gone through all the difficulties, having played an endless number of notes, it is simplicity that matters, with all its charm. It is the final seal on Art. Anyone who strives for this to begin with will be disappointed. You cannot begin at the end.
Frederic Chopin
#56. You already know when I'm writing, so don't be surprised if it's short and dry, because I'm too hungry to write anything fat
Frederic Chopin
#58. If I were still stupider than I am, I should think myself at the apex of my career; yet I know how much I still lack, to reach perfection; I see it the more clearly now that I live only among first-rank artists and know what each one of them lacks.
Frederic Chopin
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