Antonio Stradivari

"My greatest joy was the moment a musician first played my creation."

"The maker who stops learning becomes merely a copier of his own past."

"I never worried about immortality; the instruments would speak for me."

"The varnish is the final testimony to a maker's understanding of beauty."

"To make violins is to engage in a conversation with eternity."

"The strongest instruments come from the most humble makers."

"I taught my hands to listen before they were taught to carve."

"The market may forget a name, but the instruments remain eternal judges."

"In every curve lies the accumulated knowledge of decades."

"The maker's greatest challenge is knowing when to stop."

"I built for love, not for wealth, though wealth sometimes followed."

"The wood chosen today will sing tomorrow; choose with reverence."

"My workshop was my monastery; my violins were my prayers."

"To understand an instrument is to understand the maker's desperation."

"I never built a violin that was merely good enough."

"The maker who is satisfied has ceased to be a maker."

"In the grain of the wood lives the answer to all my questions."