Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Quotations

I pay no attention whatever to anybody's praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

My subject enlarges itself, becomes methodized and define, and the whole, though it be long, stands almost complete and finished in my mind, so that I can survey it, like a fine picture or a beautiful statute, at a glance.

My fatherland has always the first claim on me.

I write [music] as a sow piddles.

As I love Mannheim , Mannheim loves me.

If Germany, my beloved fatherland, of whom you know I am proud, will not accept me, then must I, in the name of God, again make France or England richer by one capable German - and to the shame of the German nation.

She's only pretty in that she has two small black eyes and a good figure.

I do not hear in my imagination the parts successively, but I hear them gleich alles zusammen - at the same time all together.

To every good friend I send my greet feet; addio nitwit. Love true true true until the grave, if I live that long and do behave.

I love it when an aria fits a singer as perfectly as a suit of well-tailored clothes.

I must give you a piece of intelligence that you perhaps already know, namely that the ungodly arch-villain Voltaire has died miserably like a dog, just like a brute. That is his reward!

Even when I can play Europe's most precious keyboard, to have to listen to people who don't understand, or do not want to understand, and who are incapable of grasping my intent, whatever I play, does surely forfeit my lust for playing at all.

Now let the matter rest as it is, or as it may be, what avail useless speculations? What is to occur we do not know; still in so far we do! what God wills!

Music, in even the most terrible situations, must never offend the ear but always remain a source of pleasure.

Patience and tranquility of mind contribute more to cure our distempers as the whole art of medicine

Directly after God in heaven comes a Papa.

Neither rejoice nor lament prematurely; for whatever may happen, all will be well if we only have health; for happiness exists--merely in the imagination.

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.

Melody is the essence of music.

The most necessary, most difficult and principal thing in music, that is time.

I should like to know for what reason idleness is so popular with many young people that it is impossible to dissuade them from it either by words or by chastisements.

I will gladly give lessons as a favor, particularly when I see that my student has talent, inclination, and anxiety to learn; but to be obliged to go to a house at a certain hour, or to have to wait at home for a pupil, is what I cannot do, no matter how much money it may bring me in. . . I am a composer and was born to be a Kapellmeister. I neither can nor ought to bury the talent for composition with which God in his goodness has so richly endowed me. . .

Handel understands effect better than any of us -- when he chooses, he strikes like a thunderbolt.

God first, then papa.

I too had to work hard, so as not to have to work hard any longer.

An astonishing number of kisses are flying about! I see a whole crowd of them. Ha! Ha! I have just caught three - They are delicious... I kiss you millions of times.

Now there is music from which a man can learn something.

Write to me and don't be so lazy. Otherwise I shall have to give you a thrashing. What fun! I'll break your head.

What's even worse than a flute? - Two flutes!

It is a mistake to think that the price of my art has become easy to me.

I really do not aim at any originality.

Forgive me, Majesty. I am a vulgar man! But I assure you, my music is not.

You know that I become quite powerless whenever I am obliged to write for an instrument which I cannot bear.

Music is my life and my life is music.

To my eyes and ears the organ will ever be the King of Instruments.

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.

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!

My dear sister! I’m amazed to discover that you can compose so delightfully. In a word, your Lied is beautiful. You must compose more often.

Writing music is my one and only passion and joy.

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.

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.

Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.

Melody is the essence of music. I compare a good melodist to a fine racer, and counterpointists to hack post-horses; therefore be advised, let well alone and remember the old Italian proverb: Chi sa più, meno sa— Who knows most, knows least.

The wonders of the music of the future will be of a higher & wider scale and will introduce many sounds that the human ear is now incapable of hearing. Among these new sounds will be the glorious music of angelic chorales. As men hear these they will cease to consider Angels as figments of their imagination.

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.

Nor do I hear in my imagination the parts successively, I hear them all at once. What a delight this is! All this inventing, this producing, takes place in a pleasing, lively dream.

Our riches, being in our brains, die with us... Unless of course someone chops off our head, in which case, we won't need them anyway.

To win applause one must write stuff so simple that a coachman might sing it.

When I am at peace with myself . . . then thoughts flow into me most easily and at their best. Where they come from and how - that I cannot say . . . I'd be willing to work forever and forever if I were permitted to write only such music as I want to write and can write - which I myself think good.

A bachelor, in my opinion, is only half alive.

The taste of death is upon my lips. I feel something that is not of this earth.

I am not thoughtless but am prepared for anything and as a result can wait patiently for whatever the future holds in store, and I'll be able to endure it.

Love guards the heart from the abyss.

I am a fool. That is well known.

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.

I am never happier than when I have something to compose, for that, after all, is my sole delight and passion

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.

If people could see into my heart, I should almost feel ashamed - all there is cold, cold as ice.

For I assure you, without travel, at least for people from the arts and sciences, one is a miserable creature!... A man of mediocre talents always remains mediocre, may he travel or not - but a man of superior talents, which I cannot deny myself to have without being blasphemous, becomes - bad, if he always stays in the same place.

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.

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 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.

My great grandfather used to say to his wife, my great-grandmother, who in turn told her daughter, my grandmother, who repeated it to her daughter, my mother, who used to remind her daughter, my own sister, that to talk well and eloquently was a very great art, but that an equally great one was to know the right moment to stop.

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.

Whoever is most impertinent has the best chance.

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....

I choose such notes that love one another.

Music is my life and my life is music. Anyone who does not understand this is not worthy of God.

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.

Silence is very important. The silence between the notes are as important as the notes themselves.

If only the whole world could feel the power of harmony.

As death, when we come to consider it closely, is the true goal of our existence . . .

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.

The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.