leonard bernstein

“ In stillness every human being is great; he is a poet, and most like an angel. ”

“ Any great artwork revives and readapts time and space, and the measure of its success is the extent to whic it makes you an inhabitant of that world - the extent to which it invites you in and lets you breathe its strange, special air. ”

“ The joy of music should not be interrupted by a commercial. ”

“ We are neither pure, nor wise, nor good, ”

“ Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable . ”

“ Music of all arts, stands in a special regi0n, unlit by any star but its own, and utterly without meaning ”

“ A liberal is a man or a woman or a child who looks forward to a better day, a more tranquil night, and a bright, infinite future. ”

“ Life without music is unthinkable. Life without music is academic. That is why my contact with music is totally an embrace. ”

“ Our most emotionally active life is lived within our dreams, and our cells renew themselves during sleep. We reach highest in meditation, and farthest in prayer. ”

“ A work of art does not answer questions, it provokes them, and its essential meaning is in the tension between the contradictory answers. ”