Top 103 Quotes & Sayings by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an Austrian musician Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Last updated on September 17, 2024.
When I come to reflect on the subject, in no country have I received such honors or been so esteemed as in Italy, and nothing contributes more to a man's fame than to have written Italian operas, and especially for Naples.
I live in a country where music has very little success, though, exclusive of those who have forsaken us, we have still admirable professors and, more particularly, composers of great solidity, knowledge, and taste.
Just as people behave to me, so do I behave to them. When I see that a person despises me and treats me with contempt, I can be as proud as any peacock.
My sole recreations consist in dancing English hornpipes and cutting capers. Italy is a land of sleep; I am always drowsy here.
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.
I am one of those who will go on doing till all doings are at an end.
My Constanze is the virtuous, honourable, discreet, and faithful darling of her honest and kindly-disposed Mozart.
Believe me, I do not like idleness but work.
Versification is, indeed, indispensable for music, but rhyme, solely for rhyming's sake, most pernicious.
The happy medium - truth in all things - is no longer either known or valued; to gain applause, one must write things so inane that they might be played on barrel-organs, or so unintelligible that no rational being can comprehend them, though on that very account, they are likely to please.
If I were obliged to marry all those with whom I have jested, I should have at least two hundred wives.
It is a great consolation for me to remember that the Lord, to whom I had drawn near in humble and child-like faith, has suffered and died for me, and that He will look on me in love and compassion.
I thank my God for graciously granting me the opportunity of learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness.
My father is maestro at the Metropolitan church, which gives me an opportunity to write for the church as much as I please.
I hope never to marry in this way; I wish to make my wife happy, but not to become rich by her means, so I will let things alone and enjoy my golden freedom till I am so well off that I can support both wife and children.
I know nothing new except that Herr Gellert, the Leipzig poet, is dead, and has written no more poetry since his death.
How sad it is that these great gentlemen should believe what anyone tells them and do not choose to judge for themselves! But it is always so.
As for pupils, I can have as many as I choose, but I do not choose to take many. I intend to be better paid than others, and so I wish to have fewer scholars. It is advisable to hang back a little at first, or it is all over with you, and you must pursue the common highway with the rest.
I cannot write poetically, for I am no poet. I cannot make fine artistic phrases that cast light and shadow, for I am no painter. I can neither by signs nor by pantomime express my thoughts and feelings, for I am no dancer; but I can by tones, for I am a musician.
I pay no attention whatever to anybody's praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings.
Nevertheless 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.
We live in this world in order always to learn industriously and to enlighten each other by means of discussion and to strive vigorously to promote the progress of science and the fine arts.
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.
An unmarried man, in my opinion, enjoys only half a life.
When I am traveling in a carriage, or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep; it is on such occasions that ideas flow best and most abundantly.
A man of ordinary talent will always be ordinary, whether he travels or not; but a man of superior talent (which I cannot deny myself to be without being impious) will go to pieces if he remains forever in the same place.
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.
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 relationships with this best and truest friend of mankind that death's image is not only no longer terrifying to me, but is indeed very soothing and consoling, and I thank my God for graciously granting me the opportunity...of learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness.
I really do not aim at any originality.
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.
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.
I never lie down at night without reflecting that, young as I am, I may not live to see another day.
The best way to learn is through the powerful force of rhythm.
It is when I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone, and of good cheer.....that ideas flow best and most abundantly. Whence and how they come, I know not, nor can I force them.
Music is my life and my life is music. Anyone who does not understand this is not worthy of God.
What's even worse than a flute? - Two flutes!
Whoever is most impertinent has the best chance.
I am never happier than when I have something to compose, for that, after all, is my sole delight and passion
Patience and tranquility of mind contribute more to cure
our distempers as the whole art of medicine
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 music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.
God is ever before my eyes. I realize his omnipotence and I fear His anger; but I also recognize his compassion, and His tenderness towards His creatures.
Love guards the heart from the abyss.
People err who think my art comes easily to me. I assure you, dear friend, nobody has devoted so much time and thought to compositions as I. There is not a famous master whose music I have not industriously studied through many times.
I have never written the music that was in my heart to write; perhaps I never shall with this brain and these fingers, but I know that hereafter it will be written; when instead of these few inlets of the senses through which we now secure impressions from without, there shall be a flood of impressions from all sides; and instead of these few tones of our little octave, there shall be an infinite scale of harmonies - for I feel it - I am sure of it. This world of music, whose borders even now I have scarcely entered, is a reality, is immortal.
Music is my life and my life is music.
Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.
A bachelor, in my opinion, is only half alive.
If people could see into my heart, I should almost feel ashamed - all there is cold, cold as ice.
Music, in even the most terrible situations, must never offend the ear but always remain a source of pleasure.
Silence is very important. The silence between the notes are as important as the notes themselves.
I choose such notes that love one another.
I am a fool. That is well known.
Creativity is the firing of my soul.
Music must never offend the ear, but must please the listener, or, in other words, must never cease to be music.
Forgive me, Majesty. I am a vulgar man! But I assure you, my music is not.
If only the whole world could feel the power of harmony.
Melody is the essence of music.
I too had to work hard, so as not to have to work hard any longer.
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