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 necessar… - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

I beg you most humbly to go on loving me just a little and to make do with these poor congratulations until I get some new drawers made for my small and narrow brainbox in which I can keep the brains that I still intend to acquire.

you mustn’t place your signature too low down on the page and thereby leave a blank space above it, otherwise some rogue – if such a letter were to fall into the wrong hands – might cut out the name and add some small demand for several louis d’or in the blank space above it.

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.