“To copy the truth can be a good thing, but to invent the truth is better, much better.”

Copiare il vero può essere una buona cosa, ma inventare il vero è meglio, molto meglio.
Letter to Clara Maffei, October 20, 1876, cited from James P. Cassaro (ed.) Music, Libraries and the Academy (Middleton, Wisconsin: A-R Editions, 2007) p. 218; translation from the same source.

Original

Copiare il vero può essere una buona cosa, ma inventare il vero è meglio, molto meglio.

Source: Da una lettera a Clara Maffei, 20 ottobre 1876; citato in Franz Werfel, Verdi. L'uomo nelle sue lettere, Lit Edizioni, 2014, p. 247 https://books.google.it/books?id=8hMwBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT247. ISBN 8868267217

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Nov. 16, 2021. History

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Giuseppe Verdi 8
Italian composer 1813–1901

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