Well, " he said with equanimity, "you see, in my opinion there is no point at all in talking about music. I never talk about music. What reply, then, was I to make to your very able and just remarks? You were perfectly right in all you said. But, you see, I am a musician, not a professor, and I don't believe that, as regards music, there is the least point in being right. Music does not depend on being right, on having good taste and education and all that."" Indeed. Then what does it depend on?"" On making music, Herr Haller, on making music as well and as much as possible and with all the intensity of which one is capable. That is the point, Monsieur. Though I carried the complete works of Bach and Haydn in my head and could say the cleverest things about them, not a soul would be the better for it. But when I take hold of my mouthpiece and play a lively shimmy, whether the shimmy be good or bad, it will give people pleasure. It gets into their legs and into their blood. That's the point and that alone. Look at the faces in a dance hall at the moment when the music strikes up after a longish pause, how eyes sparkle, legs twitch and faces begin to laugh. That is why one makes music. . Hermann Hesse
About This Quote

It is better to have lived, than to have died. We should take every opportunity to live every moment. We should enjoy the present moment because it is the only moment that we can change. Our future is not up to us, it is given to us. Right now is the only chance that we have to do what we want with our life.

Source: Steppenwolf

Some Similar Quotes
  1. Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible. - Frank Zappa

  2. Music is. .. A higher revelation than all Wisdom & Philosophy - Ludwig Van Beethoven

  3. Philosophy is the highest music. - Plato

  4. Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul. - Plato

  5. The truth is, going against the internal stream of ignorance is way more rebellious than trying to start some sort of cultural revolution. - Noah Levine

More Quotes By Hermann Hesse
  1. If I know what love is, it is because of you.

  2. Oh, love isn't there to make us happy. I believe it exists to show us how much we can endure.

  3. Often it is the most deserving people who cannot help loving those who destroy them.

  4. It may be important to great thinkers to examine the world, to explain and despise it. But I think it is only important to love the world, not to despise it, not for us to hate each other, but to be able to regard the...

  5. Love must not entreat, ' she added, 'or demand. Love must have the strength to become certain within itself. Then it ceases merely to be attracted and begins to attract.

Related Topics