This is the greatest honour I have ever received in my life. Peace has always been my greatest concern. Yet in my childhood I learned to love it. My mother - an exceptional, brilliant woman - used to speak to me about it when I was still a child, because in those years there were also a lot of wars. Moreover, I am Catalan. Catalonia had the first democratic Parliament much before than England. And it was in my country where there was a beginning of united nations. At that time - the eleventh Century - they met in Toluges - today in France - to speak about peace, because the Catalonian people of that time were already against war. That is why, the United Nations, which work only for the ideal of peace, are in my hearth, because everything relating to peace goes directly there. I have not played the cello in front of an audience since long years but I think I must do it this time. I am going to play a melody from the Catalonian folklore: The singing of the Birds. Birds, when in the sky, go singing: Peace, peace, peace. And this is a melody that Bach, Beethoven and all great people would have admired and loved. And, in addition, it springs up from the soul of my country: Catalonia.
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The love of one’s country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?
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You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed there has never been another child like you. Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move. You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel.
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I am perhaps the oldest musician in the world. I am an old man but in many senses a very young man. And this is what I want you to be, young, young all your life, and to say things to the world that are true.
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Let us not forget that the greatest composers were also the greatest thieves. They stole from everyone and everywhere.
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Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart.
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To retire is to die.
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The most important thing in music is what is not in the notes.
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We ought to think that we are one of the leaves of a tree, and the tree is all humanity. We cannot live without the others, without the tree.
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The capacity to care is what gives life its most deepest significance.
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Music must serve a purpose; it must be a part of something larger than itself, a part of humanity...
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I am an old man, but in many senses a very young man. And this is what I want you to be, young, young all your life.
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You must work--- we must all work To make the world worthy of its children.
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