List of Nadia Boulanger Quotes

[on The Music Of Richard Strauss:] Too Many Notes!

Everything We Know By Heart Enriches Us And Helps Us Find Ourselves. If It Should Get In The Way Of Finding Ourselves, It Is Because We Have No Personality.

The Great Conductor Is Always A Despot By Temperament And Intractable In His Ways. ... The Artist Is Obliged To Keep His Laughter And Tears To Himself. If They Want To Emerge, In Spite Of Himself, Then He Must Hide Them Or Unleash Them In Someone Else.

It Is Easier To Analyze A Work In Its Form, In Its Evolution, Than Simply To Love It With All The Living Forces Of Our Heart. It Is Easier To Define Its Peculiarities And Its Details Than To Draw Out Of It Its Emotion, Its Thought.

Never Forget That Your Days Are Blessed. You May Know How To Profit By Them, Or You May Not, But They Are Blesses.

In Music Everything Is Prolonged, Everything Is Edified, And When The Enchantment Has Ceased, We Are Still Bathed In Its Clarity; Solitude Is Accompanied By A New Hope Between Pity For Ourselves - Which Makes Us More Indulgent And More Understanding - And The Certitude Of Finding Something Again, That Which Lives For Ever In Music.

The Constitution Of The United States Is Not A Mere Lawyers' Document; It Is A Vehicle Of Life, And Its Spirit Is Always The Spirit Of The Age.

I Adore Tradition. I Cannot Stand Habit. Simply To Repeat Is Nothing, Also To Destroy Is Nothing. Tradition Is Never Interrupted, We Are Always Evolving But Never Interrupted.

As Far As The Execution Is Concerned ... The Most Frequent And Most Serious Mistake Is To Follow The Music Instead Of Preceding It.

A Great Work Is Made Out Of A Combination Of Obedience And Liberty.

You Should Never Listen To Someone Practice. That Is Their Work And Theirs Alone.

Without A Strong Cup To Carry The Emotion, It Is Only A Curiosity. Great Art Can Come To Us Only In Strong Cups. Without Emotion, There Is Nothing To Carry.