"I hate flatterers and toadies, but I like people who are straightforward and honest."

"Pity that I am not master of all the world, as I am of my heart!"

"Don't only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets, for it and knowledge can elevate man to the divine."

"What is good must be good already in the first draft."

"Oh you people who think or say that I am malevolent, stubborn or misanthropic, how greatly do you wrong me. You do not know the secret cause which makes me seem so to you. From childhood on, my heart …"