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.

If I contemplate myself as part of the Universe: what am I?

Oh, how beautiful it is to be alive - would that I could live a thousand times

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

Rossini would have been a great composer if his teacher had spanked him enough on his backside.

I shall seize fate by the throat.

This is the mark of a really admirable man: steadfastness in the face of trouble.