I am the slave of an internal power more powerful than my education.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that inner strength and intuition can surpass formal education.
Arnold Schoenberg emphasizes the concept that one's inherent abilities and instincts can be more influential than the knowledge gained through education. He highlights the idea that personal drive and creativity, which are often innate, can lead to greater achievements than traditional learning alone. This reflects a belief in the significance of individual potential and the impact of internal motivation.
In practice
In a motivational speech about following one's passion over conventional paths.
I never was very capable of expressing my feelings or emotions in words. I don't know whether this is the cause why I did it in music and also why I did it in painting. Or vice versa: That I had this way as an outlet. I could renounce expressing something in words.
I owe very, very much to Mozart; and if one studies, for instance, the way in which I write for string quartet, then one cannot deny that I have learned this directly from Mozart. And I am proud of it!
There is still plenty of good music to be written in C major.
I find above all that the expression, atonal music, is most unfortunate β it is on a par with calling flying the art of not falling, or swimming the art of not drowning.
My music is not modern, it is merely badly played
That is another chamber of my heart that shows no electrical activity - the chamber that used to flicker into life when I saw a film that moved me, or read a book that inspired me, or listened to music that made me want to cry. I closed that chamber myself, for all the usual reasons. And now I seem to have made a pact with some philistine devil: if I don't attempt to re-open it, I will be allowed just enough energy and optimism to get through a working day without wanting to hang myself.
There are no makeovers in my books. The ugly duckling does not become a beautiful swan. She becomes a confident duck able to take charge of her own life and problems.
Your current conditions are echoes of your past choices.
The constancy of sages is nothing but the art of locking up their agitation in their hearts.
Not creating delusions is enlightenment.
So as grave and learned men may doubt, without any imputation to them; for the most learned doubteth most, and the more ignorant for the most part are the more bold and peremptory.
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