Yehudi Menuhin Quotes

We are full of rhythms . . . our pulse, our gestures, our digestive tracts, the lunar and seasonal cycles.

A dream is unrehearsed.

It is music that welds spiritual and sensual, that can convey ecstasy free of guilt, faith without dogma, love as homage, and a person at home with nature and the infinite.

Music creates order out of chaos: for rhythm imposes unanimity upon the divergent, melody imposes continuity upon the disjointed, and harmony imposes compatibility upon the incongruous.

If I wanted to play the violin, I had to work. Because anything that one wants to do really, and one loves doing, one must do everyday. It should be as easy to the artist and as natural as flying is to a bird. And you can’t imagine a bird saying well, I’m tired today, I’m not going to fly!

To be an outstanding musician, you have to be very attentive to the smallest detail and willing to have infinite patience in the pursuit of your ideal. You require absolute control and professionalism.

It is perhaps life’s greatest accomplishment to live to old age, maintaining one’s wits, one’s sense of humor, one’s health, and one’s charm.

To play great music, you must keep your eyes on a distant star.

Life is not a finished product, it is only what we make of it, and if we make nothing of it, someone else will, and we will be his slave.

The ultimate aim in life should be to fulfill to the utmost all that within our ability and to share that which is good and beautiful.

The violinist is that peculiarly human phenomenon distilled to a rare potency—half tiger,half poet.