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I played over the music of that scoundrel Brahms. What a giftless bastard! It annoys me that this self-inflated mediocrity is hailed as a genius.

— Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

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More quotes by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

What I need is to believe in myself again— for my faith has been greatly undermined; it seems to me my role is over.

After the last notes of Gotterdammerung I felt as though I had been let out of prison.

I am a Russian, Russian, Russian, to the marrow of my bones.

Fate... hangs over our heads like the sword of Damocles and inexorably distills a slow and deadly venom. One must bend to it and abandon oneself to boundless despair...

This evening I feel sad and am shedding tears because this morning while wandering in the woods I was unable to find a single violet. What an old sniveller I am...!

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The emphasis of study upon a particular aspect of music is in itself ideological because it contains implications about the music's value.

Lucy Green

Music is well said to be the speech of angels.

Thomas Carlyle Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827)

Music has no subject beyond the combinations of notes we hear, for music speaks not only by means of sounds, it speaks nothing but sound.

Eduard Hanslick

Above the pitch, out of tune, and off the hinges.

François Rabelais Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

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