Whereas most other modern composers are engaged in manufacturing cocktails of every hue and description, I offer the public cold spring water. - Jean Sibelius

If we understood the world, we would realize that there is a logic of harmony underlying its manifold apparent dissonances.

Music is for me like a beautiful mosaic which God has put together. He takes all the pieces in his hand, throws them into the world, and we have to recreate the picture from the pieces.

I often conduct an orchestra in my sleep; my orchestras are so huge that the back desks of the violas vanish into the horizon. And everything is so wonderful.