Richard Wagner
Revolutionary opera composer, Gesamtkunstwerk
Most quoted
"The error in the art-genre of Opera consists herein: that a Means of expression (Music) has been made the end, while the End of expression (the Drama) has been made a means."
— from Opera and Drama, 1851
"The destiny of us musicians is to be the first artists to disappear from this earth; for after all, what have we got to do with a world from which beauty is vanishing?"
— from Letter
"Where the world is nothing but a dream, there is no need for a world to be. But where the world is a dream, there is a need for a world to be dreamed."
— from Letters
All quotes by Richard Wagner (411)
The artwork of the future will be the work of the inspired.
Music is the most sublime of all arts.
The artwork of the future will be the work of the divine.
The artist must be a creator of myths.
Music is the most mysterious of all arts.
I am a musician, and I want to be nothing else.
My whole life is a struggle against the commonplace.
Art is the most beautiful deception of all.
Where there is no love, there is no art.
I am not a man of the world, but a man of my art.
The true artist creates for himself, not for the public.
My Tristan is a terrible thing.
Love is the eternal source of all art.
I have never loved anyone as I love you.
My life is a dream, and my art is the awakening.
The world owes me nothing, but I owe the world my art.
My art is my religion.
I am the most German of all Germans.
My work is my life, and my life is my work.
Bayreuth is my child, my creation, my dream.
Contemporaries of Richard Wagner
Other Musics born within 50 years of Richard Wagner (1813–1883).