“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 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.”

“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 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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I write as a sow piddles.”