The world is a king, and like a king, desires flattery in return for favor; but true art is selfish and perverse — it will not submit to the mold of flattery.

Handel is the greatest composer that ever lived... I would uncover my head and kneel down on his tomb.

If I contemplate myself as part of the Universe: what am I?

You ask me where I get my ideas. That I cannot tell you with certainty. They come unsummoned, directly, indirectly - I could seize them with my hands - out in the open air, in the woods, while walking, in the silence of the nights, at dawn, excited by moods which are translated by the poet into words, by me into tones that sound and roar and storm about me till I have set them down in notes.

The foundation of friendship demands the greatest likeness of human souls and hearts.

Even in poverty I lived like a king for I tell you that nobility is the thing that makes a king

I want to seize fate by the throat.