“I dislike many-sidedness, which, moreover, I rather think I do not much believe in. Anything that aspires to be distinguished, or beautiful, or really great, must be one-sided.”

Ich überhaupt vielseitigkeit nicht recht mag, oder eigentlich nicht recht daran glaube. Was eigenthümlich, und schön, und groß sein soll, das muß einseitig sein.
Letter to his parents, June 6, 1831, cited from Reisebriefe von Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Aus den Jahren 1830 bis 1832 (Leipzig: Hermann Mendelssohn, 1862) p. 157; translation from Lady Wallace (trans.) Letters from Italy and Switzerland (Philadelphia: Frederick Leypoldt, 1863)

Original

Ich überhaupt vielseitigkeit nicht recht mag, oder eigentlich nicht recht daran glaube. Was eigenthümlich, und schön, und groß sein soll, das muß einseitig sein.

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Felix Mendelssohn 4
German composer, pianist and conductor 1809–1847

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