Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Melody is the essence of music.

To talk well and eloquently is a very great art, but that an equally great one is to know the right moment to stop.

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 passions, whether violent or not, should never be so expressed as to reach the point of causing disgust; and music, even in situations of the greatest horror, should never be painful to the ear but should flatter and charm it, and thereby always remain music.

It is a mistake to think that the practice of my art has become easy to me. I assure you, dear friend, no one has given so much care to the study of composition as I. There is scarcely a famous master in music whose works I have not frequently and diligently studied.

I live in a country where music meets with little encouragement.

I am a composer, and I was born a Kapellmeister. I must not and cannot bury my talent for composition.

Believe me, I do not like idleness but work.

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.

I have only to glance at the book, and it is done; the music is already in my mind.

All I insist on, and nothing else, is that you should show the whole world that you are not afraid. Be silent, if you choose; but when it is necessary, speak—and speak in such a way that people will remember it.

My heart is completely enchanted with all these pleasures, because it is so jolly here, and, because in the country, I feel like a child.

I am never in a good humor when I am in a place where music is treated so contemptuously.

As death, when we come to consider it closely, is the true goal of our existence, I have formed during the last few years such close relations with this best and truest friend of mankind that his image is not only no longer terrifying to me, but is indeed very soothing and consoling!

I know myself, and I have such a sense of religion that I shall never do anything which I would not do before the whole world.

I care very little for Salzburg and not at all for the archbishop: I shit on both of them.

If I were obliged to marry all the girls I have joked with, I should have at least 200 wives.

I am, if I may say so, too well-mannered to be a provincial.

The most stimulating and encouraging thought is that you, dearest father, and my dear sister, are well, that I am an honest German, and that if I am not always permitted to talk I may yet think what I please; but that is all.

I cannot describe either my feelings or my thoughts to you. There is a emptiness which hurts me very much.