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.

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

Handel, to him I bow the knee.

But what a humiliation for me when someone standing next to me heard a flute in the distance and I heard nothing, or someone standing next to me heard a shepherd singing and again I heard nothing. Such incidents drove me almost to despair; a little more of that and I would have ended my life - it was only my art that held me back.

I love a tree more than a man.

Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes.

Whoever tells a lie is not pure of heart, and such a person can not cook a clean soup.