Of course there is no formula for success, except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life, and what it brings
Arthur RubinsteinRead
I'm a free person; I feel terribly free. They could put me in chains and I still would be free because my thoughts would be mine - and that's all I want to have.
Interpretation
True freedom comes from within and is defined by one's thoughts, not external circumstances.
Arthur Rubinstein expresses a profound belief that freedom is a state of mind, emphasizing that no physical restraints can hinder the liberty one feels in their thoughts. He suggests that while one may face external limitations, the essence of freedom is the ability to think independently and that this internal freedom is what truly matters.
In practice
During a motivational speech about overcoming challenges, one might quote this to emphasize the importance of mental freedom.
Of course there is no formula for success, except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life, and what it brings
Sometimes when I sit down to practice and there is no one else in the room, I have to stifle an impulse to ring for the elevator man and offer him money to come in and hear me.
Composing a concert is like composing a menu.... If you start with light pieces and play a 45-minute sonata after the interlude, it's like starting dinner with hors d'oeuvres and dessert and finishing with a Châteaubriand and vegetables.
To be alive, to be able to see, to walk, to have houses, music, paintings - it's all a miracle. I have adopted the technique of living life miracle to miracle.
At every concert I leave a lot to the moment. I must have the unexpected, the unforeseen. I want to risk, to dare. I want to be surprised by what comes out. I want to enjoy it more than the audience. That way the music can bloom anew. It's like making love. The act is always the same, but each time it's different.
To be alive, to able to see, to walk...it's all a miracle. I have adapted the technique of living life from miracle to miracle.
All religions begin with the cry Help.
The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness.
I am sorry my life is so marred and maimed by extravagance. But I cannot live otherwise. I, at any rate, pay the penalty of suffering.
Communication across the revolutionary divide is inevitably partial.
We have a tendency to think of war as this quasi-mystical thing, and that interpretation flattens the experience - by using different perspectives, I wanted to open a place for readers to compare and contrast, to make judgments, to engage.
I have at this moment so many fundamental thoughts, so many truly metaphysical things to say, that I suddenly get tired and decide not to write any more, not to think any more, but to allow the fever of speaking to make me sleepy, and with my eyes closed, like a cat, I play with everything I could have said.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.