“The attitude of foreign to English musicians is unsympathetic, self-opinionated and pedantic. They believe that their tradition is the only one (this is specially true of the Viennese) and that anything that is not in accordance with that tradition is "wrong" and arises from insular ignorance.”

“Only very few manage to keep searching for fragility; it requires musicians to make multiple breaks from their own traditions.”

“Books hold no passports. There's only one true literary tradition: the human.”

“Tradition is a prison with majority opinion the modern jailer.”

“True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.”

“Prejudice is a product of ignorance that hides behind barriers of tradition.”

“The traditional male hero is about self-sacrifice, not self-actualization.”

“Ignorance immediately knows things in an ordinary, conceptual way. Because ignorance and its accompanying mental states arise first, wrong beliefs ensue. Therefore the texts say, "Ignorance conceals the true nature of obejcts."”

“He was the rarest musician that his age did behold; having travelled beyond the seas, and compounded English with foreign skill in that faculty.”

“The true Germany, with its western traditions, must be separated from Prussia, which belongs to the east.”