At least I have the modesty to admit that lack of modesty is one of my failings.

Heine commenting on the music of Louis Hector Berlioz: He is an immense nightingale, a lark as great as an eagle. . . . The music causes me to dream of fabulous empires, filled with fabulous sins.

Which of the two powers, Love or Music, can elevate man to the sublimest heights? ... It is a problem, and yet it seems to me that this is the answer: 'Love can give no idea of music; music can give an idea of love.' ... Why separate them? They are two wings of the soul.

Every composer knows the anguish and despair occasioned by forgetting ideas which one had no time to write down.

To render my works properly requires a combination of extreme precision and irresistible verve, a regulated vehemence, a dreamy tenderness, and an almost morbid melancholy.

At least I have the modesty to admit that lack of modesty is one of my failings.

If men of genius only knew what love their works inspire!