"What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven."

"It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well."

"A musician is a musician because he lives the music. Not just plays it. But lives it. And if he doesn't live it, he is nothing."

"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy."

"I like to compose, but I hate to write it out."