Frédéric Chopin quotes

Time is still the best critic, and patience the best teacher. (Frédéric Chopin)
Nothing is more odious than music without hidden meaning. View quote
Frédéric Chopin
Sometimes I can only groan, and suffer, and pour out my despair at the piano. View quote
Frédéric Chopin
Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art. View quote
Frédéric Chopin
I'm a revolutionary, money means nothing to me. View quote
Frédéric Chopin
Every difficulty slurred over will be a ghost to disturb your repose later on. View quote
Frédéric Chopin
Play Mozart in memory of me - and I will hear you. View quote
Frédéric Chopin
I could express my feelings more easily if they could be put into the notes of music, but as the very best concert would not cover my affection for you, dear daddy, I must use the simple words of my heart, to lay before you my utmost gratitude and filial affection. View quote
Frédéric Chopin
Concerts are never real music, you have to give up the idea of hearing in them all the most beautiful things of art. View quote
Frédéric Chopin
My piano has not yet arrived. How did you send it? By Marseilles or by Perpignan? I dream music but I cannot make any because here there are not any pianos... in this respect this is a savage country. View quote
Frédéric Chopin
One needs only to study a certain positioning of the hand in relation to the keys to obtain with ease the most beautiful sounds, to know how to play long notes and short notes and to [attain] certain unlimited dexterity... A well formed technique, it seems to me, [is one] that can control and vary a beautiful sound quality. (Frédéric Chopin)
You already know when I'm writing, so don't be surprised if it's short and dry, because I'm too hungry to write anything fat. View quote
Frédéric Chopin
I am cross and depressed, and people bore me with their excessive attentions. I can't breathe, I can't work; I feel alone, alone, alone, although I am surrounded. There are a whole lot of ladies, 70 to 80 year-old lords, but no young folk: they are all out shooting. One can't get out of doors because it has been raining and blowing for several days. View quote
Frédéric Chopin
I astonished Kalkbrenner, who at once asked me, was I not a pupil of Field, because I have Cramer's method and Field's touch. View quote
Frédéric Chopin
Simplicity is the highest goal, achievable when you have overcome all difficulties. View quote
Frédéric Chopin
I tell my piano the things I used to tell you. View quote
Frédéric Chopin
I wish I could throw off the thoughts which poison my happiness, but I take a kind of pleasure in indulging them. View quote
Frédéric Chopin
It is dreadful when something weighs on your mind, not to have a soul to unburden yourself to. You know what I mean. I tell my piano the things I used to tell you. View quote
Frédéric Chopin
Bach is an astronomer, discovering the most marvellous stars. Beethoven challenges the universe. I only try to express the soul and the heart of man. View quote
Frédéric Chopin
When one does a thing, it appears good, otherwise one would not write it. Only later comes reflection, and one discards or accepts the thing. Time is the best censor, and patience a most excellent teacher. View quote
Frédéric Chopin
Oh, how hard it must be to die anywhere but in ones birthplace. (Frédéric Chopin)
Vienna is a handsome, lively city, and pleases me exceedingly. View quote
Frédéric Chopin
Fingers of steel. Wrist of silk. View quote
Frédéric Chopin
How great a joy I feel in my heart. That a day so pleasant, so dear and glorious begins, a day that I greet with the wish. That long years may pass in happiness. In health and vigour, peacefully, successfully. May the gift of heaven fall richly upon you. View quote
Frédéric Chopin
I have met Rossini, Cherubini, Baillot, etc.-also Kalkbrenner. You would not believe how curious I was about Herz, Liszt, Hiller, etc. - They are all zero beside Kalkbrenner. I confess that I have played like Herz, but would wish to play like Kalkbrenner. If Paganini is perfection, Kalkbrenner is his equal, but in quite another style. View quote
Frédéric Chopin