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

Oh you men who think or say that I am malevolent, stubborn, or misanthropic, how greatly do you wrong me. You do not know the secret cause which makes me seem that way to you. Oh how harshly was I flung back by the doubly sad experience of my bad hearing.

It seemed unthinkable for me to leave the world forever before I had produced all that I felt called upon to produce

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.

Music is the electric soil in which the spirit thinks, lives and invents. All that's electrical stimulates the mind to flowing surging musical creation. I am electrical by nature.

You're a happy fellow, for you'll give happiness and joy to many other people. There is nothing better or greater than that.

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