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The principal mark of genius is not perfection, but originality.

Robert Schumann

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Robert Schumann
Age: 46 †
Born: 1810
Born: June 8
Died: 1856
Died: July 29
Composer
Conductor
Music Critic
Music Pedagogue
Musician
Musicologist
Pianist
Robert Alexander Schumann
Frontiers
Originality
Principal
Perfection
Mark
Genius

More quotes by Robert Schumann

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It was an unforgettable picture to see Chopin sitting at the piano like a clairvoyant, lost in his dreams to see how his vision communicated itself through his playing, and how, at the end of each piece, he had the sad habit of running one finger over the length of the plaintive keyboard, as though to tear himself forcibly away from his dream.
Robert Schumann
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You will be most readily cured of vanity or presumption by studying the history of music, and by hearing the master pieces which have been produced at different periods.
Robert Schumann
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You should neither play bad compositions, nor, unless compelled, listen to them.
Robert Schumann
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My heart pounds sickeningly and I turn pale... I often feel as if I were dead... I seem to be losing my mind.
Robert Schumann
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For me, music is always the language which permits one to converse with the Beyond.
Robert Schumann
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Think it a vile habit to alter works of good composers, to omit parts of them, or to insert new-fashioned ornaments. This is the greatest insult you can offer to Art.
Robert Schumann
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Remember, there are more people in the world than yourself. Be modest! You have not yet invented nor thought anything which others have not thought or invented before. And should you really have done so, consider it a gift of heaven which you are to share with others.
Robert Schumann
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Endeavour to play easy pieces well and with elegance that is better than to play difficult pieces badly.
Robert Schumann
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The aesthetic principle is the same in every art, only the material differs.
Robert Schumann
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When you play, do not trouble yourself as to who is listening. Yet always play as though a master listened to you.
Robert Schumann
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Confidence and courage are special skills to the art ... Within the four walls of his study, the artist should be modest, work diligently and conscientiously. While for the public, he'll show himself audacious, yes even into cheerful boldness. And so a new public's darling has arisen.
Robert Schumann
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It is the curse of talent that, although it labors with greater steadiness and perseverance than genius, it does not reach its goal, while genius already on the summit of the ideal, gazes laughingly about.
Robert Schumann
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We shouldn't repeat the same for ages on end, but look into the new as well.
Robert Schumann
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Without enthusiasm nothing great can be effected in art.
Robert Schumann
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From a pound of iron, that costs little, a thousand watch-springs can be made, whose value becomes prodigious. The pound you have received from the Lord,--use it faithfully.
Robert Schumann
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Only when the form grows clear to you, will the spirit become so too.
Robert Schumann
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Art was not created as a way to riches. Strive to become a true artist all else will take care of itself.
Robert Schumann
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We have learned to express the more delicate nuances of feeling by penetrating more deeply into the mysteries of harmony.
Robert Schumann
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Nature best teaches how to pray, and how to reverence all the gifts the Almighty has given us. She is like a vast outspread handkerchief, embroidered with God's eternal name, on which we may dry alike our tears of sorrow and of joy she turns weeping into ecstasy, and fills our hearts with speechless, quiet reverence and resignation.
Robert Schumann
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You write to become immortal, or because the piano happens to be open, or you've looked into a pair of beautiful eyes.
Robert Schumann