If I were still stupider than I am, I should think myself at the apex of my career; yet I know how much I still lack, to reach perfection; I see it the more clearly now that I live only among first-rank artists and know what each one of them lacks.

After a rest in Edinburgh, where, passing a music-shop, I heard some blind man playing a mazurka of mine.

I'm a revolutionary, money means nothing to me.

When one does a thing, it appears good, otherwise one would not write it. Only later comes reflection, and one discards or accepts the thing. Time is the best censor, and patience a most excellent teacher.

England is a country of pianos, they are everywhere.

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

England is so surrounded by the boredom of conventionalities, that it is all one to them whether music is good or bad, since they have to hear it from morning till night. For here they have flower-shows with music, dinners with music, sales with music.