I don't know how it is, but the Germans are amazed at me and I am amazed at them for finding anything to be amazed about.

Man is never always happy, and very often only a brief period of happiness is granted him in this world; so why escape from this dream which cannot last long?

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.

They want me to give another concert but I have no desire to do so. You cannot imagine what a torture the three days before a public appearance are to me.

Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.

My manuscripts sleep, while I cannot, for I am covered with poultices.