In the world of art, as in the whole of creation, freedom and progress are the main objectives.

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

What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven.

Only the flint of a man's mind can strike fire in music.

Don't regard yourself as too divine to improve, occasionally, your own works.

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.

Music is the mediator between the life of the senses and the life of the spirit.