The reduction of the universe to the compass of a single being, and the extension of a single being until it reaches God - that is love. Love is the salute of the angels to the stars. How sad is the heart when rendered sad by love! How great is the void created by the absence of the being who alone fills the world.

My misfortune is that I still resemble a man too much. I should liked to be wholly a beast like that goat. - Quasimodo

If a writer wrote merely for his time, I would have to break my pen and throw it away.

I'm not in the world to guard my own life, but to guard souls

Music expresses that which cannot be put into words.

In the opera we call love, the libretto is almost nothing.

If you want to civilize a man, begin with his grandmother.