Bernstein on Stillness

STILLNESS is our most intense mode of action.
It is in our moments of deep quiet that is born every idea,
emotion and drive which we eventually honor with the name of action.

Our most emotionally active life is lived in our dreams;
our cells renew themselves most industriously in our sleep.
We reach the highest in meditation, the farthest in prayer.

In stillness every human being is capable of greatness;
he is free from the experience of hostility;
he is a poet, and most like an angel.

But stillness requires a profound discipline,
it must be worked for,
and it is therefore all the more to be treasured.

~Leonard Bernstein

Bernstein: A Tribute To Teachers

The following is the speech made by Leonard Bernstein at a New York Philharmonic Young People's Concert in 1963:

My dear young friends,
Welcome back to Philharmonic Hall. You may think it strange that I have chosen to open this new season of Young People's Concerts with the subject of teachers. After all, aren't these programs always about music? And what have teachers got to do with music?
The answer is: everything. We can all imagine a painter who is self-taught, and maybe some writers too, but it is almost impossible to imagine a professional musician who doesn't owe something to one teacher or another. The trouble is that we don't always realize how important teachers are, in music or in anything else. Teaching is probably the noblest profession in the world -- the most unselfish, difficult and honorable profession. But it is also the most unappreciated, underrated, underpaid, and underpraised profession in the world...........