Top 29 Quotes by Igor Stravinsky

Music is given to us with the sole purpose of establishing an order in things, including, and particularly, the coordination between man and time.

The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one's self. And the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution.

I am an inventor of music.

Harpists spend 90 percent of their lives tuning their harps and 10 percent playing out of tune.

Sins cannot be undone, only forgiven.

I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge.

Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal.

To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also.

Just as appetite comes by eating, so work brings inspiration, if inspiration is not discernible at the beginning.