Quotes by Richard Wagner

“Many's the man/ who thought himself wise/ but what he needed/ he did not know...”

“Parsifal is on his way to the temple of the Grail Knights and says: I hardly move, yet far I seem to have come, and the all-knowing Gurnemanz replies: You see, my son, time turns here into space”

“I can't distract myself enough here, for sketches to a new opera are constantly buzzing around in my head, to the extent that I need all my strength to wrest myself from them.”

“Divorce is one of the most financially traumatic things you can go through. Money spent on getting mad or getting even is money wasted.”

“What manner of thing this 'public opinion' is, should be best known to those who have its name forever in their mouths and erect the regard for it into a positive article of religion. Its self-styl...”

“Imagination creates reality.”

“Even if I know I shall never change the masses, never transform anything permanent, all I ask is that the good things also have their place, their refuge.”

“Joy is not in things it is in us.”

“I can't see the logic in medicating a grieving person like there was something wrong with her, and yet it happens all the time... you go to the doctor with symptoms of profound grief and they push ...”

“Parsifal is on his way to the temple of the Grail Knights and says: “I hardly move, yet far I seem to have come”, and the all-knowing Gurnemanz replies: “You see, my son, time turns here into space”

“Joy is not in things it is in us.”

“I believe in God; and Mozart, and Beethoven as his only sons.”

“It is necessary for us to explain the involuntary repugnance we possess for the nature and personality of the Jews … The Jews have never produced a true poet. Heinrich Heine reached the point where...”

“The error in the art-genre of Opera consists herein: a Means of expression (Music) has been made the end, while the End of expression (the Drama) has been made a means.”

“The oldest, truest, most beautiful organ of music, the origin to which alone our music owes its being, is the human voice.”

“Recently, while I was in the street, my eye was caught by a poulterer's shop; I stared unthinkingly at his piled-up wares, neatly and appetizingly laid out, when I became aware of a man at the side...”

“I had translated the first twelve books of the Odyssey. For a while I learnt English also, merely so as to gain an accurate knowledge of Shakespeare; and I made a metrical translation of Romeo's mo...”

“The July Revolution took place; with one bound I became a revolutionist, and acquired the conviction that every decently active being ought to occupy himself with politics exclusively. I was only h...”

“Germany appeared in my eyes a very tiny portion of the earth. I had emerged from abstract Mysticism, and I learnt a love for Matter. Beauty of material and brilliancy of wit were lordly things to m...”

“The utter childishness of our provincial public's verdict upon any art-manifestation that may chance to make its first appearance in their own theatre — for they are only accustomed to witness perf...”