It is the melody which is the charm of music, and it is that which is most difficult to produce. The invention of a fine melody is a work of genius.

I tell you before God, and as an honest man, your son (W A Mozart)is the greatest composer known to me by person and repute, he has taste and what is more the greatest skill in composition.

Whenever I think of God I can only conceive of Him as a Being infinitely great and infinitely good. This last quality of the divine nature inspires me with such confidence and joy that I could have written even a miserere in tempo allegro.

There was no one near to confuse me, so I was forced to become original.

Never was I so devout as when I composed The Creation. I knelt down each day to pray to God to give me strength for my work....When I was working on The Creation I felt so impregnated with Divine certainty, that before sitting down to the piano, I would quietly and confidently pray to God to grant me the talent that was needed to praise Him worthily.

When I think of my God, my heart dances within me for joy, and then my music has to dance, too.

Young people can learn from my example that something can come from nothing. What I have become is the result of my hard efforts.