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 life, and my music is my breath.
I am a man of death, and my music is my silence.
My compositions spring from my sorrow. Those that give the world the greatest delight were born of my deepest grief.
When I wished to sing of love, it turned to sorrow. And when I wished to sing of sorrow, it was transformed for me into love.
There is no such thing as happy music.
The world resembles a stage on which every man is playing a part. Approval is of the moment, but the truth is eternal.
No one understands another's grief, no one understands another's joy... My music is the product of my talent and my misery.
I am in the world only for the purpose of composing.
Pain sharpens the understanding and focuses the mind, but it is pleasure that makes it broad and creative.
A man endures misfortune without complaint.
I compose every morning, and when one piece is done, I begin another.
The guitar is a wonderful instrument, but it is understood by few.
Beethoven's works seem to me like a brilliant magician's tricks, compared to which Schubert's are like the innocent prattle of a child.
I sing my songs, and if the world doesn't like them, what can I do? I sing them anyway.
Every night when I go to sleep, I hope that I may not wake again, and every morning renews the grief of yesterday.
Nothing is more odious than a sentimentalist.
The magic of sound can transform the soul.
I have come into the world for no other purpose but to compose.
What a glorious thing, the human voice! It is the organ of the soul.
To be honest, I'd rather not think about the future; I let things come as they will.
Contemporaries of Franz Schubert
Other Musics born within 50 years of Franz Schubert (1797–1828).