Händel is the greatest and ablest of all composers; from him I can still learn.

Of all my children, this is the one that cost me the worst birth-pangs and brought me the most sorrow; and for that reason it is the one most dear to me.

Life would be flat without music. It is the background to all I do. It speaks to the heart in its own special way like nothing else.

Don't only practise your art, but force your way into its secrets.

Music is indeed the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.

Wherever you are, I am there also.

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.