Music Was Not Invented By The Composer,

[on Being Asked How It Felt To Be The First Female Conductor Of The Boston Symphony:] I've Been A Woman For A Little More Than Fifty Years, And I've Gotten Over My Original Astonishment.

It Is So Much Easier To Rest Contented With What We Have Already Acquired Than To Change Ever So Slightly Those Routine But Profound Habits Of Thought And Feeling Which Govern Our Life, And By Which We Live So Blissfully. This Mental Inertia Is, Perhaps, Our Greatest Enemy. Insidiously It Leads Us To Assume That We Can Renew Our Lives Without Renewing Our Habits.

Without Discipline, There Can Be No Freedom.

Life Is Denied By Lack Of Attention, Whether It Be To Cleaning Windows Or Trying To Write A Masterpiece.

Nothing Is Better Than Music; When It Takes Us Out Of Time, It Has Done More For Us Than We Have The Right To Hope For.