Franz Schubert

“I am composing like a god, as if it simply had to be done as it has been done.”

“Easy mind, light heart. A mind that is too easy hides a heart that is too heavy.”

“Above all things, I must not get angry. If I do get angry I knock all the teeth out of the mouth of the poor wretch who has angered me.”

“There are two contrary impulses which govern this man's brain-the one sane, and the other eccentric. They alternate at regular intervals.”

“One bites into the brass mouthpiece of his wooden cudgel, and the other blows his cheeks out on a French horn. Do you call that Art?”

“There is no such thing as happy music.”

“Why should the composer be more guilty than the poet who warms to fantasy by a strange flame, making an idea that inspires him the subject of his own very different treatment?”

“The world resembles a stage on which every man is playing a part.”

“Nobody understands another's sorrow, and nobody another's joy.”

“A man endures misfortune without complaint.”

“You believe happiness to be derived from the place in which once you have been happy, but in truth it is centered in ourselves.”

“Why does God endow us with compassion?”

“When I wished to sing of love, it turned to sorrow. And when I wished to sing of sorrow, it was transformed for me into love.”

“I try to decorate my imagination as much as I can.”

“I never force myself to be devout except when I feel so inspired, and never compose hymns of prayers unless I feel within me real and true devotion.”

“The moment is supreme.”

“No one feels another's grief, no one understands another's joy. People imagine they can reach one another. In reality they only pass each other by.”

“Approval or blame will follow in the world to come.”

“There are eight girls in the house in which I am living, and practically all of them are good looking. You can realize that I am kept busy.”

“The greatest misfortune of the wise man and the greatest unhappiness of the fool are based upon convention.”