Frédéric Chopin
Poet of the piano, transformed piano music
Most quoted
"One needs only to study a certain positioning of the hand in relation to the keys to obtain with ease the most beautiful sounds, to know how to play long notes and short notes and to [attain] certain unlimited dexterity... A well formed technique, it seems to me, [is one] that can control and vary a beautiful sound quality."
— from Prose writings
"Paris is whatever you want it to be. You can amuse yourself, be bored, laugh, cry, do whatever you like, and no one will so much as look at you, because thousands of others are doing exactly the same thing, each in his own way."
— from Letter, 1831
"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."
— from Attributed remark
All quotes by Frédéric Chopin (369)
Bach is an astronomer, discovering the most wonderful stars. Beethoven is a conqueror, scaling the highest peaks. I am a mere mortal, wandering through the valleys.
Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and many, many notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.
The piano is my second self.
I am not suited for giving concerts. The crowd intimidates me, its breath suffocates me. I feel paralyzed by its curious gaze, and the unfamiliar faces make me dumb.
I wish I could throw off the thoughts that make me so sad, but I can't.
I am a revolutionary, but not a political one.
Everything is a question of taste, and there is no disputing about taste.
I am only a pianist, not a composer.
I have no talent for teaching.
I am not a man of the world.
I am not a man of action.
I am not a man of words.
I am not a man of the people.
I am not a man of the future.
I am not a man of the past.
I am not a man of the present.
I am not a man of the moment.
I am not a man of the age.
I am not a man of the times.
I am not a man of the century.
Contemporaries of Frédéric Chopin
Other Musics born within 50 years of Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849).