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My sole recreations consist in dancing English hornpipes and cutting capers. Italy is a land of sleep; I am always drowsy here.
My father is maestro at the Metropolitan church, which gives me an opportunity to write for the church as much as I please.
When I come to reflect on the subject, in no country have I received such honors or been so esteemed as in Italy, and nothing contributes more to a man's fame than to have written Italian operas, and especially for Naples.
As for pupils, I can have as many as I choose, but I do not choose to take many. I intend to be better paid than others, and so I wish to have fewer scholars. It is advisable to hang back a little at first, or it is all over with you, and you must pursue the common highway with the rest.
An unmarried man, in my opinion, enjoys only half a life.
I cannot write poetically, for I am no poet. I cannot make fine artistic phrases that cast light and shadow, for I am no painter. I can neither by signs nor by pantomime express my thoughts and feelings, for I am no dancer; but I can by tones, for I am a musician.
I am one of those who will go on doing till all doings are at an end.
My Constanze is the virtuous, honourable, discreet, and faithful darling of her honest and kindly-disposed Mozart.
If I were obliged to marry all those with whom I have jested, I should have at least two hundred wives.
I know nothing new except that Herr Gellert, the Leipzig poet, is dead, and has written no more poetry since his death.
How sad it is that these great gentlemen should believe what anyone tells them and do not choose to judge for themselves! But it is always so.
Versification is, indeed, indispensable for music, but rhyme, solely for rhyming's sake, most pernicious.
Believe me, I do not like idleness but work.
I live in a country where music has very little success, though, exclusive of those who have forsaken us, we have still admirable professors and, more particularly, composers of great solidity, knowledge, and taste.
The happy medium - truth in all things - is no longer either known or valued; to gain applause, one must write things so inane that they might be played on barrel-organs, or so unintelligible that no rational being can comprehend them, though on that very account, they are likely to please.
I hope never to marry in this way; I wish to make my wife happy, but not to become rich by her means, so I will let things alone and enjoy my golden freedom till I am so well off that I can support both wife and children.
Just as people behave to me, so do I behave to them. When I see that a person despises me and treats me with contempt, I can be as proud as any peacock.
We live in this world in order always to learn industriously and to enlighten each other by means of discussion and to strive vigorously to promote the progress of science and the fine arts.
Our riches, being in our brains, die with us... Unless of course someone chops off our head, in which case, we won't need them anyway.
The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.
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.
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