"I feel the capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest significance"
About this Quote
There’s quiet defiance in the wording. Casals lived through the collapse of old Europe, the Spanish Civil War, and Franco’s dictatorship; he famously refused to perform in countries that recognized Franco’s regime. In that context, “care” is not private sentiment but moral attention, a refusal to let cruelty become normal. He’s smuggling an ethics lesson into a humanist line: your life deepens in proportion to what you’re willing to be affected by, and what you’re willing to risk for that affect.
The subtext also pushes back against virtuosity-as-meaning. Casals was revered for his Bach interpretations, yet he implies technique alone can’t justify a life. Art, politics, relationships: all of it is hollow without the ability to be moved by another person’s reality. “Deepest significance” lands with a musician’s ear for resonance; it’s the low note under the melody, the thing you feel in your chest. In an era that rewards detachment and irony as sophistication, Casals makes a bracing claim: numbness is not neutrality, it’s a kind of spiritual poverty.
Quote Details
| Topic | Meaning of Life |
|---|---|
| Source | Attributed to Pablo Casals; quoted on Wikiquote (Pablo Casals) as "The capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest significance." No primary-source citation given on the Wikiquote entry. |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Casals, Pablo. (n.d.). I feel the capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest significance. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-feel-the-capacity-to-care-is-the-thing-which-108692/
Chicago Style
Casals, Pablo. "I feel the capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest significance." FixQuotes. Accessed February 3, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-feel-the-capacity-to-care-is-the-thing-which-108692/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I feel the capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest significance." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-feel-the-capacity-to-care-is-the-thing-which-108692/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2026.










