The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.
Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.
Stay with me to-night; you must see me die. I have long had the taste of death on my tongue, I smell death, and who will stand by my Constanze, if you do not stay?
I pay no attention whatever to anybody’s praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings.
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.
If only the whole world could feel the power of harmony.
Silence is very important. The silence between the notes is as important as the notes themselves.
Music is my life and my life is music. Anyone who does not understand this is not worthy of God.
When I feel well and in a good humour, or when I am taking a drive or walking after a good meal, or in the night when I cannot sleep, thoughts crowd into my mind as easily as my mind might wish.
Whoever is most impertinent has the best chance.
The best way to learn is through the powerful force of rhythm.
Let us put our trust in God and console ourselves with the thought that all is well, if it is in accordance with the will of the Almighty, as He knows best what is profitable and beneficial to our temporal happiness and our eternal salvation.
I choose such notes that love one another.
To talk well and eloquently is a very great art, but that an equally great one is to know the right moment to stop.
The whole, though it be long, stands almost complete and finished in my mind so that I can survey it at a glance. Nor do I hear in my imagination the parts successively, but I hear them, as it were, all at once. What delight this is I cannot tell!
Music must never offend the ear, but must please the listener, or, in other words, must never cease to be music.
True perfection in all things is no longer known or prized – you must write music that is either so simple a coachman could sing it, or so unintelligble that audiences like it simply because no sane person could understand it.
You know that I become quite powerless whenever I am obliged to write for an instrument which I cannot bear.
You know that I immerse myself in music, so to speak- that I think about it all day long- that I like experimenting- studying- reflecting.
Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.