Only music clarifies, reconciles, and consoles. But it is not a straw just barely clutched at. It is a faithful friend, protector, and comforter, and for its sake alone, life in this world is worth living. Who knows, perhaps in heaven there will be no music. So let us live on the earth while we still have life!

A self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood.

Music is an incomparably more powerful means and is a subtler language for expressing the thousand different moments of the soul's moods.

The creative process is like music which takes root with extraordinary force and rapidity

I have put my whole soul into this work [The Pathetique Symphony] . . . You cannot imagine what joy I feel at the thought that my days are not yet over and that I may still accomplish much.

I feel I shall live a long time.

The muse doesn't come without being called.