Franz Schubert
Master of the art song (Lied)
Most quoted
"I am the unhappiest, most wretched man in the world. Imagine a man whose health will never be right again, and who in sheer despair over this, always makes things worse instead of better; imagine a man, I say, whose most brilliant hopes have come to naught, to whom the happiness of love and friendship offers nothing but the bitterest pain, and whose enthusiasm for the beautiful (at least inspiring) threatens to vanish; and ask yourself, is he not a wretched, unhappy man?"
— from Letter to Leopold Kupelwieser, 1824
"Oh, imagination! Thou greatest treasure of man, thou inexhaustible fount of all art and science! How many friends have I gained through thee, how many enemies hast thou made for me!"
— from Diary entry, 1816
"Music is the wine which inspires one to new generative processes, and I am Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for mankind and makes them spiritually drunken."
— from Letter, 1826
All quotes by Franz Schubert (370)
I am a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.
I am a man who has seen much, and suffered much.
I am a man who has known much joy, and much sorrow.
I am a man who has loved much, and lost much.
I am a man who has hoped much, and despaired much.
I am a man who has lived much, and died much.
I am a man who has dreamed much, and awakened much.
I am a man who has believed much, and doubted much.
I am a man who has sought much, and found little.
I am a man who has given much, and received little.
I am a man who has created much, and destroyed little.
I am a man who has lived for art, and died for art.
I am a man who has lived for music, and died for music.
I am a man who has lived for beauty, and died for beauty.
I am a man who has lived for truth, and died for truth.
I am a man who has lived for love, and died for love.
I am a man who has lived for life, and died for life.
I am a man who has lived for humanity, and died for humanity.
I am a man who has lived for God, and died for God.
I am a man who has lived for eternity, and died for eternity.
Contemporaries of Franz Schubert
Other Musics born within 50 years of Franz Schubert (1797–1828).