Casals on music

For the past eighty years I have started each day in the same manner. It is not a mechanical routine but something essential to my daily life. I go to the piano, and I play two preludes and fugues of Bach. I cannot think of doing otherwise. It is a sort of benediction on the house. But that is not its only meaning for me. It is a rediscovery of the world of which I have the joy of being a part. It fills me with awareness of the wonder of life, with a feeling of the incredible marvel of being a human being.  Pablo Casals (1876-1973) Quoted in Music Lovers Quotations, edited by Helen Exley.  

Pablo Casals was a Spanish-born cellist and conductor, known for his virtuosic technique, skilled interpretation, and consummate musicianship.