Johannes Brahms Quotes

• Study Bach. There you will find everything.

  Johannes Brahms

  Study

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• Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind.

  Johannes Brahms

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Music

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• If there is anyone here whom I have not insulted, I beg his pardon.

  Johannes Brahms

  Insulted Him, Leaving, Pardon

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• In my study I can lay my hand on the Bible in the pitch dark. All truly inspired ideas come from God. The powers from which all truly great composers like Mozart, Schubert, Bach and Beethoven drew their inspirations is the same power that enabled Jesus to do his miracles.

  Johannes Brahms

  Jesus, Inspiration, Dark

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• One should never forget that by actually perfecting one piece one gains and learns more than by starting or half-finishing a dozen.

  Johannes Brahms

  Life And Love, Finishing, Pieces

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• The idea comes to me from outside of me - and is like a gift. I then take the idea and make it my own - that is where the skill lies.

  Johannes Brahms

  Lying, Skills, Ideas

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• It is not hard to compose, but what is fabulously hard is to leave the superfluous notes under the table.

  Johannes Brahms

  Tables, Fabulous, Notes

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• Reviewer: 'One of your themes was very similar to one of Beethoven's!' Brahms replied, 'Of course it is. Everyone steals - the important thing is to do it brilliantly.

  Johannes Brahms

  Important, Copying, Stealing

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• It is a real pleasure to see music so bright and spontaneous expressed with corresponding ease and grace.

  Johannes Brahms

  Real, Grace, Ease

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• If we cannot write with the beauty of Mozart, let us at least try to write with his purity.

  Johannes Brahms

  Writing, Trying, Purity

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• Straight-away the ideas flow in upon me, directly from God, and not only do I see distinct themes in my mind's eye, but they are clothed in the right forms, harmonies, and orchestration.

  Johannes Brahms

  Eye, Ideas, Mind

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• The only true immortality lies in one's children.

  Johannes Brahms

  Children, Lying, Immortality

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• Those who enjoy their own emotionally bad health and who habitually fill their own minds with the rank poisons of suspicion, jealousy and hatred, as a rule take umbrage at those who refuse to do likewise, and they find a perverted relief in trying to denigrate them.

  Johannes Brahms

  Jealousy, Hatred, Mind

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• To follow in Beethoven's footsteps transcends one's strength.

  Johannes Brahms

  Footsteps

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• Those are miracles that no merely human brain can work. The artist is merely the sound conduct of a Force that dictates to him what he should do.

  Johannes Brahms

  Music, Artist, Miracle

  37 Copy quote

• A symphony is no joke.

  Johannes Brahms

  Symphony, Jokes

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• The fact that most people do not understand and respect the very best things, such as Mozart's concertos, is what permits men like us to become famous.

  Johannes Brahms

  Men, People, Facts

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• My things really are written with an appalling lack of practicality!

  Johannes Brahms

  Written, Practicality

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• For the shallow delights of matrimony and opera I have no courage.

  Johannes Brahms

  Delight, Opera, Shallow

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• It is not hard to compose but it is wonderfully hard to let the superfluous notes fall under the table. . . So many melodies fly about, one must be careful not to tread on them.

  Johannes Brahms

  Fall, Tables, Notes

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• Straightaway the ideas flow in upon me, directly from God.

  Johannes Brahms

  Ideas, Flow, Orchestration

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• How lucky is the man who, like Mozart and others, goes to the tavern of an evening and writes some fresh music. For he lives while he is creating.

  Johannes Brahms

  Writing, Men, Creating

  Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms (1971). “Letters of Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms, 1853-1896”

  39 Copy quote

• Composers in the old days used to keep strictly to the base of the theme, as their real subject. Beethoven varies the melody, harmony and rhythms so beautifully.

  Johannes Brahms

  Real, Harmony, Used

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• We cling nervously to the melody, but we don't handle it freely, we don't really make anything new out of it, we merely overload it.

  Johannes Brahms

  Melody, Handle, Overload

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• Ah, that tastes nice. Thank you.

  Johannes Brahms

  Nice, Dying, Taste

  Johannes Brahms' last words said after he had a small glass of wine, April 3, 1897.

  35 Copy quote

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