“My imagination can picture no fairer happiness than to continue living for art.”

“I do not want horses or diamonds - I am happy in possessing you.”

“My health may be better preserved if I exert myself less, but in the end doesn't each person give his life for his calling?”

“Why hurry over beautiful things? Why not linger and enjoy them?”

“How much one has to do to leave town with a few dollars! ...I arrive home, dead tired, at 11 or 12 o'clock [at night], gulp a mouthful of water, lie down and think, Is an artist much more than a be...”

“I’ve been playing the songs by Liszt, with which you so surprised me, with great enthusiasm, especially Gretchen, Erlkönig, and Sei mir gegrüßt. Is Liszt coming to Vienna in the summer? Thalberg as...”

“History's greatest composers would be appalled to hear their greatest works reduced to distorted hold music for businesses.”

“The world is not worthless but one should know how to get work done from it, because everyone is God, they all have different work to do. Therefore do not have dislike for anything in this world.”

“Just as you wont enjoy the fruits of the tree you dislike, so you wont even wait to learn from people you hate.”

“Never waste a minute thinking about people you don't like.”

“If a person gave your body to any stranger he met on is way, you would certainly be angry. And do you feel no shame in handing over your own mind to be confused and mystified by anyone who happens ...”

“Money-makers are tiresome company, as they have no standard but cash value.”

“Sir, I admit your general rule, That every poet is a fool, But you yourself may serve to show it, That every fool is not a poet.”