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

This is not a brook [Bach means "brook" in German], it's an ocean.

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.

Yet it was impossible for me to say to people, 'Speak louder, shout, for I am deaf.' Ah, how could I possibly admit an infirmity in the one sense which ought to be more perfect in me than others, a sense which I once possessed in the highest perfection, a perfection such as few in my profession enjoy or ever have enjoyed.

I want to seize fate by the throat.

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

I have never thought of writing for reputation and honor. What I have in my heart must come out; that is the reason why I compose.