“I am in the world only for the purpose of composing.”

“My compositions spring from my sorrows. Those that give the world the greatest delight were born of my deepest griefs.”

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

“Happy is the man who finds a true friend, and far happier is he who finds that true friend in his wife.”

“There is no such thing as happy music.”

“The person I am in the company of my sisters has been entirely different from the person I am in the company of other people. Fearless, powerful, surprising, moved as I otherwise am only when I write.”

“I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy.”