“Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music.”
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Sergei Rachmaninoff12
Russian composer, pianist, and conductor 1873–1943Related quotes
“One great love in a single lifetime was enough for anyone.”
Robert James Waller book A Thousand Country Roads
Source: A Thousand Country Roads
“So much working, reading, thinking, living to do! A lifetime is not long enough.”
Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer
Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
“If "thank you" is the only prayer you can utter in your lifetime, that would be enough.”
Meister Eckhart (1260–1328) German theologian
Very commonly attributed to Eckhart on the internet and some publications, the source of the first formulation however is: A Bucket of Surprises (2002) by J. John and Mark Stibbe.
Disputed
“We live only a few conscious decades, and we fret ourselves enough for several lifetimes.”
Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist
Source: Hitch-22: A Memoir
Brian Hayes (scientist) (1900) American scientist, columnist and author
Preface, p. x
Group Theory in the Bedroom (2008)
Judy LaMarsh (1924–1980) Canadian politician, writer, broadcaster and barrister.
Source: Memoirs Of A Bird In A Gilded Cage (1969), CHAPTER 1, In the beginning, p. 3
Claude Debussy (1862–1918) French composer
Letter to Paul Dukas (1901)
Context: I confess that I am no longer thinking in musical terms, or at least not much, even though I believe with all my heart that Music remains for all time the finest means of expression we have. It’s just that I find the actual pieces — whether they’re old or modern, which is in any case merely a matter of dates — so totally poverty-stricken, manifesting an inability to see beyond the work-table. They smell of the lamp, not of the sun. And then, overshadowing everything, there’s the desire to amaze one’s colleagues with arresting harmonies, quite unnecessary for the most part. In short, these days especially, music is devoid of emotional impact. I feel that, without descending to the level of the gossip column or the novel, it should be possible to solve the problem somehow. There’s no need either for music to make people think! … It would be enough if music could make people listen, despite themselves and despite their petty mundane troubles, and never mind if they’re incapable of expressing anything resembling an opinion. It would be enough if they could no longer recognize their own grey, dull faces, if they felt that for a moment they had been dreaming of an imaginary country, that’s to say, one that can’t be found on the map.