Without enthusiasm nothing great can be effected in art.

Endeavour to play easy pieces well and with elegance; that is better than to play difficult pieces badly.

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.

It is the curse of talent that, although it labors with greater steadiness and perseverance than genius, it does not reach its goal, while genius already on the summit of the ideal, gazes laughingly about.

My symphonies would have reached Opus 100 if I had but written them down... Sometimes I am so full of music, and so overflowing with melody, that I find it simply impossible to write down anything.

Let your intimate friends be chosen from such as are better informed than yourself.

I was a God-fearing child, innocent and physically attractive.