It is my belief one should not belittle the artist; while, however glorious his fame may seem, his time on Mount Olympus as an honourable guest of Zeus is short. It's a pity, but all too eager will the common folk drag him from this etherial heights to the low and trodden earth.

Strange, I feel as if up to now I had written no more than a few notes.

There are and always will be thousands of princes, but there is only one Beethoven!

Anyone who tells a lie has not a pure heart, and cannot make a good soup.

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

Music is mediator between spiritual and sensual life.

Everything should be at once surprising and inevitable.