My dear sister! Iβm amazed to discover that you can compose so delightfully. In a word, your Lied is beautiful. You must compose more often.
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartRead
My sole recreations consist in dancing English hornpipes and cutting capers. Italy is a land of sleep; I am always drowsy here.
Interpretation
Mozart expresses his lack of engagement with the drowsy culture of Italy, favoring lively activities.
In this quote, Mozart reveals his vibrant personality through his love for dance and lively music, contrasting it with his perception of Italy as a sleepy and dull place that does not energize him. His mention of dancing English hornpipes and cutting capers indicates his desire for joy and vitality in the rather tranquil ambiance he associates with Italy.
In practice
In a speech about pursuing passions, one could use this quote to highlight the importance of finding joy in activities.
My dear sister! Iβm amazed to discover that you can compose so delightfully. In a word, your Lied is beautiful. You must compose more often.
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.
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.
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.
I cannot write in verse, for I am no poet. I cannot arrange the parts of speech with such art as to produce effects of light and shade, for I am no painter. Even by signs and gestures I cannot express my thoughts and feelings, for I am no dancer. But I can do so by means of sounds, for I am a musician.
The newspaper is, in fact, very bad for one's prose style. That's why I gravitated towards feature stories where you get a little more leeway in the writing style.
Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.
That is why I believe that art is so much more significant than either economics or philosophy. It is the direct measure of man's spiritual vision.
When the audience comes in, it changes the temperature of what you've written.
Because for whatever reason, even though I want to stay home all the time and be left alone, I want to tell the world who I am now.
Beauty addresses itself chiefly to sight, but there is a beauty for the hearing too, as in certain combinations so words and in all kinds of music; for melodies and cadences are beautiful; and minds that lift themselves above the realm of sense to a higher order are aware of beauty in the conduct of life, in actions, in character, in the pursuits of the intellect; and there is the beauty of the virtues.
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