Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth.

She was such a good loving mother, my best friend. Oh, who was happier than I when I could still say the dear name "Mother," and it was heard, and whom can I say it to now?

Love demands all, and has a right to all.

Artists who have won fame are often embarrassed by it; thus their first works are often their best.

Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes.

Life would be flat without music. It is the background to all I do. It speaks to the heart in its own special way like nothing else.

When I open my eyes I must sigh, for what I see is contrary to my religion, and I must despise the world which does not know that music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.