I hope you will no longer accuse me of a lack of delicacy. as I now count on your understanding.

- Gustav Mahler

The longer you live and the more you learn, the more clearly you will feel the difference between the few men who are truly great and the mere virtuosi.

- Gustav Mahler

The spirit can assert itself only through the medium of clear form.

- Gustav Mahler

Even if people censure me, they should do so hat in hand.

- Gustav Mahler

It is easier to achieve a desired result in short pieces.

- Gustav Mahler

The further the music develops, the more complex the apparatus used by the composer to express his thoughts becomes.

- Gustav Mahler

To judge a composer's work, one must consider it as a whole.

- Gustav Mahler

What I wanted and what I visualized while composing has not always been realized.

- Gustav Mahler

In the theatrical works we love and admire the most, the ending of the drama generally takes place offstage.

- Gustav Mahler

I don't let myself get carried away by my own ideas - I abandon 19 out of 20 of them every day.

- Gustav Mahler

Melodic invention is one of the surest signs of a divine gift.

- Gustav Mahler

In its beginnings, music was merely chamber music, meant to be listened to in a small space by a small audience.

- Gustav Mahler

Discipline, work. Work, discipline.

- Gustav Mahler

There is a world of difference between a Mahler eighth note and a normal eighth note.

- Gustav Mahler

I live like a Hottentot. I cannot exchange one sensible word with anyone.

- Gustav Mahler

An operetta is simply a small and gay opera.

- Gustav Mahler

Behind me the branches of a wasted and sterile existence are cracking.

- Gustav Mahler

It should be one's sole endeavor to see everything afresh and create it anew.

- Gustav Mahler

Never let oneself be guided by the opinion of one's contemporaries. Continue steadfastly on one's way.

- Gustav Mahler

I was a crazy young man who let himself be blinded by his passions and obeyed only the impulses of the moment.

- Gustav Mahler