Man is never always happy, and very often only a brief period of happiness is granted him in this world; so why escape from this dream which cannot last long?

A long time ago I decided that my universe will be the soul and heart of man.

After a rest in Edinburgh, where, passing a music-shop, I heard some blind man playing a mazurka of mine...

Bach is like an astronomer who, with the help of ciphers, finds the most wonderful stars . . . Beethoven embraced the universe with the power of his spirit . . . I do not climb so high. A long time ago I decided that my universe will be the soul and heart of man.