What's even worse than a flute? - Two flutes!

It is when I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone, and of good cheer.....that ideas flow best and most abundantly. Whence and how they come, I know not, nor can I force them.

The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.

Write to me and don't be so lazy. Otherwise I shall have to give you a thrashing. What fun! I'll break your head.

I am not thoughtless but am prepared for anything and as a result can wait patiently for whatever the future holds in store, and I'll be able to endure it.

An astonishing number of kisses are flying about! I see a whole crowd of them. Ha! Ha! I have just caught three - They are delicious... I kiss you millions of times.

I will gladly give lessons as a favor, particularly when I see that my student has talent, inclination, and anxiety to learn; but to be obliged to go to a house at a certain hour, or to have to wait at home for a pupil, is what I cannot do, no matter how much money it may bring me in. . . I am a composer and was born to be a Kapellmeister. I neither can nor ought to bury the talent for composition with which God in his goodness has so richly endowed me. . .