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It is not from choice that my life is music and nothing more, but when one is an artist what else can he be? When a whole lifetime is too short to attain the heights he wants to reach, how then can he devote any of the little time he has to things outside of his art?
Ignacy Jan Paderewski -
Times change, people change, thought and feeling take new shapes, put on fresh garments, sons bow their heads unwillingly to that which enraptured their fathers.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski
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Every new generation in its hour of dawn, filled with the dreams of youth, its thirsts, intoxications and enthusiasms, thinks itself called upon to impel humanity towards heights unmeasured, believes itself an appointed pathfinder, a thinker of thoughts, a doer of deeds greater than any of those which came before. Every new generation desires beauty, but a beauty all its own.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski -
There flows throughout our whole history a stream of humanity, of generosity, of tolerance, so broad, so powerful, and so pure that it would be vain indeed to look for a similar one in the past of any other European country.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski -
I loved your country [America] before I knew it.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski -
Rhythm is the pulse of music.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski -
There have been a few moments when I have known complete satisfaction, but only a few. I have rarely been free from the disturbing realization that my playing might have been better.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski -
Art without technique is invertebrate, shapeless, characterless.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski
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Intellectual isolation always follows commercial isolation.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski -
I cannot imagine a genuinely happy home without music in it.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski -
True originality has its foundations in the soul, not in the mind, and when there is an effort to create something different it is usually a failure. Beethoven or Schumann or Chopin did not try to be original. They were original.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski -
When I miss a week in practice, my audience knows it. When I miss a day, I know it.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski -
Art must be a slow and normal evolution.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski -
The mere fact of knowing that a great audience waits on your labor is enough to shake all your nerves to pieces.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski
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The great familiar musical works are always greeted by the audiences as ever welcome and beloved friends.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski -
Fatherland before everything, art afterward.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski -
Chopin was an invalid, as you know, but his music was volcanic.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski -
Musical expression is never primarily national, but is personal and individual rather. It is so deep, so profound, that it goes beyond and below nationality and gives voice to the most private feeling. In music there is never exact heredity. Each man is an individual.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski -
If I don't practise for one day, I know it; if I don't practise for two days, the critics knows it; if I don't practise for three days, the audience knows it.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski -
When one is an artist, what else can he be?
Ignacy Jan Paderewski
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Just as surely as every new language mastered opens up a new world, so knowledge of a Beethoven, a Chopin, or a Schumann opens up a new world in spiritual beauty and thought.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski -
I am inclined to believe that some music, like certain poetry, finds its appeal and way to all.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski