From the glow of enthusiasm I let the melody escape. I pursue it. Breathless I catch up with it. It flies again, it disappears, it plunges into a chaos of diverse emotions. I catch it again, I seize it, I embrace it with delight... I multiply it by modulations, and at last I triumph in the first theme. There is the whole symphony.

What I have in my heart and soul - must find a way out. That's the reason for music.

Hide your secret even from the closest friend; learn to be silent.

I would rather write 10,000 notes than a single letter of the alphabet.

Applaud my friends, the comedy is over... [on his death bed]

Nothing is more intolerable than to have to admit to yourself your own errors.

Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents.