I will seize fate by the throat; it shall certainly never wholly overcome me.

Music is like a dream. One that I cannot hear.

One must not hold one's self so divine as to be unwilling occasionally to make improvements in one's creations.

Oh, how beautiful it is to be alive - would that I could live a thousand times

It is my wish that you may have at better and freer life than I have had. Recommend virtue to your children; it alone, not money, can make them happy. I speak from experience; this was what upheld me in time of misery.

Of all my children, this is the one that cost me the worst birth-pangs and brought me the most sorrow; and for that reason it is the one most dear to me.

I know of no more sacred duty than to rear and educate a child.