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)
The most beautiful thing is to play a simple melody.
I don't know how it is, but the public always seems to me to be waiting for something more than what I have to offer.
Music is the art of thinking with sounds.
To be a great composer requires a knowledge of all the great composers.
My music is the best of me.
I live for art alone.
In composing, one must remember that the human soul is a deep well.
I have met with the most extraordinary success in Paris.
Time is the greatest teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.
My sweet home is no more; I am an orphan.
The aim of music is to express feeling.
I am like a bird that has lost its nest.
Composing is like breathing for me.
Paris is a paradise for artists.
The silence between the notes is as important as the notes themselves.
I write music because I cannot make a choice between my heart and my mind.
Health is my expected heaven.
Inspiration is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of work.
My fingers have a life of their own.
I am a Pole, and my music is Polish.
Contemporaries of Frédéric Chopin
Other Musics born within 50 years of Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849).