Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Quotes

29 Sourced Quotes

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.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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.

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

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
It is a mistake to think that the practice of my art has become easy to me. I assure you, dear friend, no one has given so much care to the study of composition as I. There is scarcely a famous master in music whose works I have not frequently and diligently studied.

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

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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.

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

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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!

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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....

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
She will never learn the most necessary, most difficult and principal thing in music, that is time, because from childhood she has designedly cultivated the habit of ignoring the beat.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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 may be played on a barrel-organ, or so unintelligible that no rational being can comprehend them, though on that very account they are likely to please.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The golden mean, the truth, is no longer recognized or valued. To win applause one must write stuff so simple that a coachman might sing it, or so incomprehensible that it pleases simply because no sensible man can comprehend it.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Melody is the essence of music. I compare a good melodist to a fine racer, and counterpoints to hack post-horses.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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 never lie down at night without reflecting that —- young as I am — I may not live to see another day. Yet no one of all my acquaintances could say that in company I am morose or disgruntled.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
I am happier when I have something to compose, for that, after all, is my sole delight and passion.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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 statue, at a glance. Nor do I hear in my imagination the parts successively, but I hear them, as it were, all at once. What a delight this is I cannot tell!
On his method of composition

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

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The most stimulating and encouraging thought is that you, dearest father, and my dear sister, are well, that I am an honest German, and that if I am not always permitted to talk I can think what I please; but that is all.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
I care very little for Salzburg and not at all for the archbishop: I shit on both of them.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
I know myself, and I have such a sense of religion that I shall never do anything which I would not do before the whole world; but I am alarmed at the very thoughts of being in the society of people, during my journey, whose mode of thinking is so entirely different from mine (and from that of all good people). But of course they must do as they please. I have no heart to travel with them, nor could I enjoy one pleasant hour, nor know what to talk about; for, in short, I have no great confidence in them. Friends who have no religion cannot be long our friends.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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?

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
A fellow of mediocre talent will remain a mediocrity, whether he travels or not; but one of superior talent (which without impiety I cannot deny that I possess) will go to seed if he always remains in the same place.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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!

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart