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.
Thus every matter, if it is to be done well, calls for the attention of the whole person.
When someone is counting out gold for you, don't look at your hands, or the gold. Look at the giver.
Rereading A.J. Liebling carries me happily back to an age when all good journalists knew they had plenty to be modest about, and were.
It's better to live cherishing a dream than face the possibilty that it might all come to nothing.
Failure to believe stems from moral failure to recognize the truth, not from want of evidence, but from willful neglect or distortion of the evidence.
I'm much more creative when I've actually taken care of myself.
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