Handel understands effect better than any of us -- when he chooses, he strikes like a thunderbolt.

Nor do I hear in my imagination the parts successively, but I hear them, as it were, all at once (gleich dies zusammen). What a delight this is I cannot tell ! All this inventing, this producing, takes place in a pleasing lively dream.

Music, in even the most terrible situations, must never offend the ear but always remain a source of pleasure.

As death, when we come to consider it closely, is the true goal of our existence . . .

My dear sister! I’m amazed to discover that you can compose so delightfully. In a word, your Lied is beautiful. You must compose more often.

Even when I can play Europe's most precious keyboard, to have to listen to people who don't understand, or do not want to understand, and who are incapable of grasping my intent, whatever I play, does surely forfeit my lust for playing at all.

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