Now I come to 75 years of age, I think what's most important in life is your conscience. If you told a lie and made other people suffer, I think that's very difficult when you reach this age.
Interpretation
As one ages, the importance of living truthfully and ethically becomes more apparent.
Mstislav Rostropovich reflects on the significance of conscience as one grows older, emphasizing that the impacts of dishonesty and the suffering it causes to others weigh heavily on a person's mind. At 75, he suggests that the moral choices made throughout life are paramount, and facing past wrongdoings can be particularly challenging as one approaches the end of life. This insight underscores the importance of integrity and the repercussions of our actions on ourselves and others.
In practice
During a speech on personal growth, one might use this quote to emphasize the value of honesty.
Every man must have the right fearlessly to think independently and express his opinion about what he knows, what he has personally thought about and experienced, and not merely to express with slightly different variations the opinion which has been inculcated in him.
People are craving this great progress in electronics, going after computers, the Internet, etc. It's a giant progress technologically. But they must have a balance of soul, a balance for human beauty. That means art has an important role.
The artist must forget the audience, _x000D_ forget the critics, forget the technique, forget everything but love for the music._x000D_ Then, the music speaks through the performance,_x000D_ and the performer and the listener will walk together_x000D_ with the soul of the composer, and with_x000D_ God.
When I started learning the cello, I fell in love with the instrument because it seemed like a voice - my voice.
I know that after my letter there will be undoubtedly an 'opinion' about me, but I am not afraid of it. I openly say what I think. Talent, of which we are proud, must not be submitted to the assaults of the past.
All my life I wanted to play music with love to every member of the audience.
What is it that stands higher than words? Action. What is it that stands higher than action? Silence.
To ward off alienation and gloom, it is only necessary to remember the unremembered heroes of the past, and to look around us for the unnoticed heroes of the present.
A sure sign of ineptitude and malice is manifested when one's attacker is willing to cover himself with mud in order to try and make some of it adhere to his target.
Not-knowing is true knowledge. _x000D_ _x000D_ Presuming to know is a disease._x000D_ _x000D_ First realize that you are sick;_x000D_ _x000D_ then you can move toward health.
I'd rather spend half an hour in the company of a top carpenter, than three hours in the company of an average brain surgeon
Delusions, errors and lies are like huge, gaudy vessels, the rafters of which are rotten and worm-eaten, and those who embark in them are fated to be shipwrecked.
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