Mendelssohn Quotes

• I once painted a concert singer and on the chestnut frame I carved the opening bars of Mendelssohn's Rest in the Lord. It was ornamental unobtrusive and to musicians I think it emphasized the expression of the face and pose of the figure.

  Thomas Eakins

  Thinking, Expression, Musician

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• That was one of the big problems when I was at Harvard studying music. We had to write choral pieces in the style of Brahms or Mendelssohn, which was distressing because in the end you realized how good Brahms is, and how bad you are.

  Elliott Carter

  Writing, Style, Pieces

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• If you go to Japan for instance, you should know that they have a different way of playing Beethoven or Brahms. But if you play with them Mozart, Debussy, Mendelssohn, they have a wonderful light feeling for that.

  Kurt Masur

  Light, Japan, Play

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• When the student has her voice under complete control, it is safe to take up the lyric repertoire of Mendelssohn, Old English Songs, etc. How simple and charming they are!

  Alma Gluck

  Song, Simple, Voice

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• Mendelssohn I consider the first musician of the day; I doff my hat to him as my superior. He plays with everything, especially with the grouping of the instruments in the orchestra, but with such ease, delicacy and art, with such mastery throughout.

  Robert Schumann

  Art, Play, Musician

  Robert Schumann (1986). “Schumann: a self-portrait in his own words”

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• The Germans have four violin concertos. The greatest, most uncompromising is Beethoven’s. The one by Brahms vies with it in seriousness. The richest, the most seductive, was written by Max Bruch. But the most inward, the heart’s jewel, is Mendelssohn’s.

  Joseph Joachim

  Heart, Jewels, Seductive

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• I became one of [Moses Mendelssohn] defenders. But then I heard the words "Biblical criticism" again. And, of course, afterward, I studied it more closely.

  Elie Wiesel

  Biblical, Criticism, Moses

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

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• [Moses] Mendelssohn was a religious Jew. I felt sorry for him.

  Elie Wiesel

  Religious, Sorry, Moses

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

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• I developed an anger at [Moses] Mendelssohn. Later, I read the book. I realized there was nothing subversive in it.

  Elie Wiesel

  Book, Moses, I Realized

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

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• One day - I remember it was a Sabbath afternoon - I came to the synagogue with a book in my hand. I saw a commentary on the Bible by a certain Rabbi Moshe Dessauer, better known as Moses Mendelssohn. An elderly man came up to me - I was then maybe 10 or 12. "What are you studying?" he said. "Dessauer's commentaries," I said. So he gave me a slap on my face.

  Elie Wiesel

  Book, Men, Elderly

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

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• It was an important part of Mendelssohn's philosophical and religious view that the traditional rationalist proofs for God's existence should be sound an convincing. Kant thought they were not. So Kant's critique was world-shaking for Mendelssohn.

  Allen W. Wood

  Religious, Philosophical, Views

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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• The picture of Kant as the 'theological Robespierre' or the "world-crusher" was first suggested by someone with whom Kant stood in a relation of philosophical disagreement but also great mutual respect: namely, Moses Mendelssohn.

  Allen W. Wood

  Philosophical, World, Firsts

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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• The years 1781 to 1793 are crucial for many reasons, but chiefly because they pose in an especially clear way the main problem of German philosophy for the next century. This is the old conflict between reason and faith which recurred during the pantheism controversy between Jacobi and Mendelssohn.

  Frederick C. Beiser

  Philosophy, Years, Way

  "Diotima’s child". Interview with Richard Marshall, www.3ammagazine.com. September 21, 2012.

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• It is time to remind Sharon that the star of David belongs to all Jews, not to his repulsive Government. His actions are staining the star of David with blood. The Jewish people, whose gifts to civilised discourse include Einstein and Epstein, Mendelssohn and Mahler, Sergei Eisenstein and Billy Wilder, are now symbolised throughout the world by the blustering bully Ariel Sharon, a war criminal implicated in the murder of Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila camps and now involved in killing Palestinians once again.

  Gerald Kaufman

  Stars, War, Government

  Speech to the House of Commons, April 2002.

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• Mendelssohn never wrote any Water Music. However, he wrote the Scotch Symphony, which is even better, or at least stronger.

  Victor Borge

  Funny, Music, Humorous

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• Last night at Carnegie Hall, Jack Benny played Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn lost.

  Harold C. Schonberg

  Music, Night, Lasts

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• According to Miller, Pharisee Judaism is not a religion at all, but a secret society posing as a religion, a "sect with Judaism as a rite." She cites Moses Mendelssohn who wrote "Judaism is not a religion but a Law religionized."

  Edith Starr Miller

  Law, Secret, Pharisees

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