Pablo Casals Quotes

To the whole world you might be just one person, but to one person you might just be the whole world.

The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him.

The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?

The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border? There is a brotherhood among all men. This must be recognized if life is to remain. We must learn the love of man.

The cello is like a beautiful woman who has not grown older, but younger with time, more slender, more supple, more graceful.

Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage. It takes courage for a person to listen to his own goodness and act on it.

The miracle of Bach has not appeared in any other art. To strip human nature until its divine attributes are made clear, to inform ordinary activities with spiritual fervour, to give wings of eternity to that which is most ephemeral; to make divine things human and human things divine; such is Bach, the greatest and purest moment in music of all time.

Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe; a moment that never was before and never will be again.

Don't play the notes. Play the meaning of the notes.

I feel the capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest significance.

I am a very simple man. I am a man first, an artist second. My first obligation is to the welfare of my fellow man. I will endeavour to meet this obligation through music, since it transcends language, politics and national boundaries.

To be a musician is a great privilege but it is also a very great responsibility. One must think that to be a musician is a gift - a gift from Nature. There is no great merit in us except in loving this gift with respect and devotion and doing everything possible to honor that gift by work and more work. We must work with conviction and humility, searching for beauty, simplicity, and the Truth. And it is for us musicians to do all in our power for a better world. Music must carry the message of beauty, of love and of peace.

Beauty is all about us, but how many are blind! They look at the wonder of this earth and seem to see nothing. People move hectically but give little thought to where they are going. They seek excitement ... as if they were lost and desperate.

It takes courage for people to listen to their own goodness and act on it.

What do we teach our children? . . . We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique . . . You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything.

I used to think that eighty was a very old age. Now I am ninety. I do not think this any more. As long as you are able to admire and to love, you are young.

I was at Mount Tamalpais near San Francisco hiking when a boulder came hurling down the mountainside and smashed my left hand. When I looked at my mangled bloody fingers, I had a strange reaction. 'Thank God I will never have to play again,' I said. The fact is that dedication to one's art does involve a sort of enslavement.

The person who works and is never bored is never old. Work and interest in worthwhile things are the best remedy for age.

Music must serve a purpose; it must be a part of something larger than itself, a part of humanity.

I don't have hobbies. I have passions.

Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart.

Every wrong seems possible today, and is accepted. I don't accept it.

The simplest things in music are the ones that count. The simplest thing are, of course, also the most difficult to achieve and take years of work.

The first thing to do in life is to do with purpose what one purposes to do.

The most perfect technique is that which is not noticed at all.

Man has made many machines, complex and cunning, but which of them indeed rivals the workings of his heart?

Rock n' roll is poison put to sound.

Yes, it is true. I am a miracle. I am a miracle like a tree is a miracle, like a flower is a miracle. Now, if I am a miracle, can I do a bad thing? I can't, because I am a miracle, I am a miracle. . . .

The truly important things in life - love, beauty, and one's own uniqueness - are constantly being overlooked.

We ought to think that we are one of the leaves of a tree, and the tree is all humanity. We cannot live without the others, without the tree.

The heart of the melody can never be put down on paper.

For the past eighty years I have started each day in the same manner... I go to the piano, and I play preludes and fugues of Bach... It is a sort of benediction on the house.

Bach is the supreme genius of music... This man, who knows everything and feels everything, cannot write one note, however unimportant it may appear, which is anything but transcendent. He has reached the heart of every noble thought, and has done it in the most perfect way.

The greatest respect an artist can pay to music is to give it life.

I am an old man but in many senses a very young man. And this is what I want you to be, young, young all your life.

Thank God, I'll never have to play the cello again.

For me, Bach is like Shakespeare. He has known all and felt all. He is everything.

Parents shouldn't lie to their children-not even when they think it's for their own good. Even a little lie is dangerous.

To retire is to begin to die.

As long as one can admire and love, then one is young forever.

The situation is hopeless, we must take the next step.

The only weapons I ever had were my cello and my baton.

For twelve years I studied and worked at them every day, and I was nearly 25 before I had the courage to play one of them in public. Before I did, no violinist or cellist had ever played a Suite in its entirety.

Let us not forget that the greatest composers were also the greatest thieves. They stole from everyone and everywhere.

You must work, we must all work, to make the world worthy of its children.

You do not lose your value or preciousness when you grow to be a adult. You are still that miraculous creation. You must work, we must all work, to make the world worthy of its children.

I do not think a day passes in my life in which I fail to look with fresh amazement at the miracle of nature.

For the past eighty years I have started each day in the same manner. It is not a mechanical routine, but something essential to my daily life. I go to the piano, and play two preludes and fugues of Bach. I cannot think of doing otherwise. It is a sort of benediction on the house. But that is not its only meaning for me. It is a rediscovery of the world of which I have the joy of being a part. It fills me with awareness of the wonder of life, with a feeling of the incredible marvel of being a human being.

If you play Bach every day, you are not so alone.

To live is not enough; we must take part.