To win applause one must write stuff so simple that a coachman might sing it.

The most necessary, most difficult and principal thing in music, that is time.

I pay no attention whatever to anybody's praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings.

One must not make oneself cheap here - that is a cardinal point - or else one is done. Whoever is most impertinent has the best chance.

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

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

I must give you a piece of intelligence that you perhaps already know, namely that the ungodly arch-villain Voltaire has died miserably like a dog, just like a brute. That is his reward!