When you play, do not trouble yourself as to who is listening. Yet always play as though a master listened to you.

Thus it is ever in life. The aims we once pursued no longer satisfy us; we aim, we strive, we aspire, until sight fails, and mind and body find rest in the grave.

My whole life has been a twenty years struggle between poetry and prose, or, if you like to call it so, Music and Law.

You should neither play bad compositions, nor, unless compelled, listen to them.

Perhaps only a Genius can truly understand Genius.

My heart pounds sickeningly and I turn pale... I often feel as if I were dead... I seem to be losing my mind.

Confidence and courage are special skills to the art ... Within the four walls of his study, the artist should be modest, work diligently and conscientiously. While for the public, he'll show himself audacious, yes even into cheerful boldness. And so a new public's darling has arisen.