If I have known much trouble in my youth, I have also known much joy.

Why hurry over beautiful things? Why not linger and enjoy them?

There is nothing greater than the joy of composing something oneself and then listening to it.

My health may be better preserved if I exert myself less, but in the end doesn't each person give his life for his calling?

My imagination can picture no fairer happiness than to continue living for art.

I wish to lead a life free from care, and I see that I shall be unhappy if I cannot always work at my art.

I cannot give a single concert at which I do not play one piece after the other in an agony of terror because my memory threatens to fail me. This fear torments me for days beforehand.