“I had nothing more to hope for; life had maneuvered me into a situation where there was no way out. I wanted to die; I was ready to do so. One afternoon I pulled the belt off my worn-out dressing-gown and made a noose from it. In my bathroom there was a hook for clothes high enough for me to hang myself from it. I shoved a chair beneath it, fastened the belt to the hook and put the noose round my neck. At the moment when I kicked the chair away, the belt ripped and I fell to the floor where I had fallen, inconsolable and too weak to get up. Then, still only half conscious, I dragged myself to the piano and confided my sighs and tears to it. Music, which I had loved so deeply, which was a constant companion to all my feelings, which inflames us to fight, which arouses us to love and passion, soothes our pains and instills peace in our hearts, Music brought me back to life that dreadful day. All of a sudden I was very hungry. ‘This time I’ll treat myself to two little sausages’ I decided. But outside I suddenly stopped. Something strange shot through me, call it a revelation or a vision. I observed my surroundings with new eyes, as if I were seeing them for the first time. The street, the houses, the dogs chasing each other, the men and women; now everything seemed different; even the noises of the city sounded different. I was fascinated by everything. Life seemed marvellous, it was worth living, even in prison or in a sickbed, so long as it was seen through these eyes. My ‘rebirth’ altered my whole psyche. In the chaos of my thoughts I discovered the mystery of happiness. I still hold firmly to it today; it is to love life unconditionally, the good and the bad.

“I don’t even consider myself to have any particular constitution or strength of mind, not even the ability to laugh in the face of misfortune. On the contrary, I am just as prone to nervous depressions, fits of rage and moods of impatience as everybody else, with the sole difference that I can recognize in them the unavoidable reverse side of the state of euphoria.”

- Artur Rubinstein