The greatest misfortune of the wise man and the greatest unhappiness of the fool are based upon convention.

O Mozart, immortal Mozart, how many, how infinitely many inspiring suggestions of a finer, better life you have left in our souls!

If only your pure and clean mind could touch me, dear Haydn, nobody has a greater reverence for you than I have.

I want you for always...days, years, eternities.

I try to decorate my imagination as much as I can.

It sometimes seems to me as if I do not belong to this world at all. I deplore music that engenders in people not love but madness: which rouses them to scornful laughter instead of lifting their thoughts to God.

I am composing like a god, as if it simply had to be done as it has been done.