Pablo Casals Quotes & Sayings

The most important thing in music is what is not in the notes. — Pablo Casals

Real understanding does not come from what we learn in books; it comes from what we learn from love of nature, of music, of man. For only what is learned in that way is truly understood. — Pablo Casals

In music, in the sea, in a flower, in a leaf, in an act of kindness ... I see what people call God in all these things. — Pablo Casals

It is not a mechanical routine but something essential to my daily life. I go to the piano, and I 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. The music is never the same for me, never. Each day is something new, fantastic, unbelievable. That is Bach, like nature, a miracle! — Pablo Casals

To live is not enough; we must take part. — Pablo Casals

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. — Pablo Casals

The art of not playing in tempo
one has to learn it. And the art of not playing what is written on the printed paper. — Pablo Casals

One should be able to say to our children: You are a marvel! You are unique. In all the world, there is no other child exactly like you. In the millions of years that have passed, there has never been another child like you! ... and when you grow up, can you harm another who is, like you, a marvel? — Pablo Casals

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

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. — Pablo Casals

Music will save the world. — Pablo Casals

Don't be vain because you happen to have talent. You are not responsible for that; it was not of your doing. What you do with your talent is what matters. — Pablo Casals

Kenneth Hari's art work shall influence mankind. — Pablo Casals

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 will not be, another child like him. — Pablo Casals

To retire is to begin to die. — Pablo Casals

Work helps prevent one from getting old. I, for one, cannot dream of retiring. Not now or ever. Retire? The word is alien and the idea inconceivable to me. I don't believe in retirement for anyone in my type of work, not while the spirit remains. My work is my life. I cannot think of one without the other. To "retire" means to me to begin to die. The man who works and is never bored is never old. Work and interest in worthwhile things are the best remedy for age. Each day I am reborn. Each day I must begin again.
For the past eighty years I have started each day in the same manner. — Pablo Casals

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. — Pablo Casals

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

The art of interpretation is not to play what is written. — Pablo Casals

We are not free to walk on our neighbor's toes. — Pablo Casals

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

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. — Pablo Casals

I see no particular merit in the fact that I was an artist at the age of eleven. I was born with an ability, with music in me, that is all. No special credit was due me. The only credit we can claim is for the use we make of the talent we are given. That is why I urge young musicians: "Don't be vain because you happen to have talent. You are not responsible for that; it was not of your doing. What you do with your talent is what matters. You must cherish this gift. Do not demean or waste what you have been given. Work - work constantly and nourish it."
Of course the gift to be cherished most of all is that of life itself. One's work should be a salute to life. — Pablo Casals

Rock n' roll is poison put to sound. — Pablo Casals

Do we dare to be ourselves?' This is the question that counts - and not, 'Must a man be helpless?' ... A man can do something for peace without having to jump into politics. — Pablo Casals

On my last birthday I was ninety-three years old. That is not young, of course. In fact, it is older than ninety. But age is a relative matter. If you continue to work and to absorb the beauty in the world about you, you find that age does not necessarily mean getting old. At least, not in the ordinary sense. I feel many things more intensely than ever before, and for me life grows more fascinating. — Pablo Casals

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

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. — Pablo Casals

Don't play the notes. Play the meaning of the notes. — Pablo Casals

How could anybody think of Bach as 'cold' when these [cello] suites seem to shine with the most glittering kind of poetry," Casals said. "As I got on with the study I discovered a new world of space and beauty ... the feelings I experienced were among the purest and most intense in my artistic life! — Pablo Casals

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. — Pablo Casals

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

I don't have hobbies. I have passions. — Pablo Casals

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

When you play Bach like Chopin, and Chopin like Bach, something good happens. — Pablo Casals

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

I am perhaps the oldest musician in the world. 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, and to say things to the world that are true. — Pablo Casals

I have always regarded manual labour as creative and looked with respect-and, yes, wonder-at people who work with their hands. It seems to me that their creativity is no less than that of a violinist or painter. — Pablo Casals

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

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. — Pablo Casals

Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again And what do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are? We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move. You may become a Shakespeare, a Michaelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel? You must work, we must all work, to make the world worthy of its children. — Pablo Casals

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 ... — Pablo Casals

Do we dare be ourselves? That is the question that counts. — Pablo Casals

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. — Pablo Casals

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

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. — Pablo Casals

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

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 — Pablo Casals

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

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

Love for one's country is great but why should that love stop at that border? — Pablo Casals

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

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

The answer to helplessness is not so very complicated, — Pablo Casals

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

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. — Pablo Casals

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. — Pablo Casals

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. — Pablo Casals

When we play an unaccompanied Bach suite we may compare ourselves to an actor in Shakespeare's day, creating scenery which did not exist at all, through the power of declamation and suggestion. So in Bach. There is but one voice
and many voices have to be suggested. — Pablo Casals

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

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

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

What do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are? — Pablo Casals

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

To retire is the beginning of death. — Pablo Casals

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

Resist doing things that have no meaning for life. — Pablo Casals

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

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

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

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. — Pablo Casals

Of course, I continue to play and to practice. I think I would do so if I lived for another hundred years. — Pablo Casals

I see in the melody of Nature, God. It is a wonderful work of art. The spirit of the art is wonderful. And I feel that I am myself because I have never taken music lightly. Music is the manifestation of God, like everything else. — Pablo Casals

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

The earth becomes heaven when you release your fear. The main thing in life is not to be afraid of being human. — Pablo Casals

To retire is to die. — Pablo Casals

The main thing in life is not to be afraid to be human. — Pablo Casals

Throughout my career, nervousness and stage-fright have never left me before playing. And each of the thousands of concerts I have played at, I feel as bad as I did the very first time. — Pablo Casals