I love it when an aria fits a singer as perfectly as a suit of well-tailored clothes.

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.

When I am traveling in a carriage, or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep; it is on such occasions that ideas flow best and most abundantly.

I thank my God for graciously granting me the opportunity of learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness.

Music is my life and my life is music. Anyone who does not understand this is not worthy of God.

It is a great consolation for me to remember that the Lord, to whom I had drawn near in humble and child-like faith, has suffered and died for me, and that He will look on me in love and compassion.

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