My compositions are the product of my understanding and my pain; those born of pain alone seem to please the world most.

Meine Kompositionen sind durch meinen Verstand und durch meinen Schmerz entstanden; diejenigen, welche der Schmerz allein erzeugt hat, scheinen die Welt am meisten zu erfreuen.

Franz Schubert

Musicians

Franz Schubert

Born in Vienna in 1797, Franz Schubert died at just thirty-one yet left over 1,000 compositions, earning the title 'King of Song' for his 600-plus Lieder. Winterreise and Die schoene Muellerin stand as the pinnacle of the song cycle form. His Symphony No. 8 'Unfinished' and Piano Quintet 'Trout' remain beloved staples. In his brief life, he revolutionized the marriage of poetry and music and opened the door to the Romantic era.

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Source: Franz Schubert, diary entry, March 27, 1824Verified

Franz Schubert's Other Quotes

Can you imagine cheerful music? I cannot.

O Imagination, inexhaustible spring from which artists and scholars drink! Remain with us, though acknowledged and revered by few, to shield us from so-called enlightened folly.

Related Quotes

The unexamined life is not worth living.

-- Plato

Is the motive good? Is there no selfish intent?

-- Kazuo Inamori

Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.

-- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge.

-- Igor Stravinsky

Competitions are for horses, not artists.

-- Béla Bartók