If you want to please the critics, don't play too loud, too soft, too fast, too slow.

- Arturo Toscanini

God tells me how the music should sound, but you stand in the way.

- Arturo Toscanini

I kissed my first girl and smoked my first cigarette on the same day. I haven't had time for tobacco since.

- Arturo Toscanini

I hate you all because you destroy my dreams!

- Arturo Toscanini

Liberty, in my opinion, is the only orthodoxy within the limits of which art may express itself and flourish freely-liberty that is the best of all t…

- Arturo Toscanini

To Strauss the composer I take off my hat; to Strauss the man I put it back on again.

- Arturo Toscanini

After conducting a concert in a small town, I once received the following note from a farmer who had attended the performance: "Dear Sir, I wish to i…

- Arturo Toscanini

After I die, I shall return to earth as a gatekeeper of a bordello and I won't let any of you enter.

- Arturo Toscanini

Can't you read? The score demands 'con amore,' and what are you doing? You are playing it like married men!

- Arturo Toscanini