Love is a well from which we can drink only as much as we have put in, and the stars that shine from it are only our eyes looking in.

A forty-year-old woman is only something to men who have loved her in her youth.

The first characteristic of Rossini's music is speed - a speed which removes from the soul all the sombre emotions that are so powerfully evoked within us by the slow strains in Mozart. I find also in Rossini a cool freshness, which, measure by measure, makes us smile with delight.

The more a race is governed by its passions, the less it has acquired the habit of cautious and reasoned argument, the more intense will be its love of music.

After moral poisoning, one requires physical remedies and a bottle of champagne.

There is no such thing as "natural law": this expression is nothing but old nonsense... Prior to laws, what is natural is only the strength of the lion, or the need of the creature suffering from hunger or cold, in short, need.

I see but one rule: to be clear. If I am not clear, all my world crumbles to nothing.