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Although our "gentle air" cannot improve the way hate and envy look, it does seem not to encourage firmness and decision. All is compromise; caution and refinement are everywhere. Everything has to "make a good impression" — whether or not it is any good: the impression is the main thing.

— Arnold Schoenberg About Music Criticism (1909)

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More quotes by Arnold Schoenberg

I was never revolutionary. The only revolutionary in our time was Strauss!"

Now we will throw these mediocre kitsch-mongers into slavery, and teach them to venerate the German spirit and to worship the German God.

There are no more geniuses, only critics.

Those Who Complain about the Decline (1923)

I find above all that the expression, "atonal music," is most unfortunate — it is on a par with calling flying "the art of not falling," or swimming "the art of not drowning."

I believe that he (Strauss) will remain one of the characteristic and outstanding figures in musical history. Works like Salome, Elektra and Intermezzo, and others will not perish.

Arnold Schoenberg (1946)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Arnold Schoenberg (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.