Among the numerous pleasures of Vienna the hotel evenings are famous. During supper Strauss or Lanner play waltzes...After every waltz they get huge applause; and if they play a Quodlibet, or jumble of opera, song and dance, the hearers are so overjoyed that they don't know what to do with themselves. It shows the corrupt taste of the Viennese public.

Bach is like an astronomer who, with the help of ciphers, finds the most wonderful stars.

A long time ago I decided that my universe will be the soul and heart of man.

I haven't heard anything so great for a long time; Beethoven snaps his fingers at the whole world.

Nothing is more odious than music without hidden meaning.

Simplicity is the final achievement.

If the newspapers cut me up so much that I shall not venture before the world again, I have resolved to become a house painter; that would be as easy as anything else, and I should, at any rate, still be an artist!