an artist is someone who has learned to trust in himself - Ludwig van Beethoven

Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.

Dem Manne muß die Musik Feuer aus dem Geist schlagen.

Such incidents brought me to the verge of despair, but little more and I would have put an end to my life - only art it was that withheld me, and it seemed impossible to leave the world until I had produced all that I felt called upon me to produce, and so I endured this wretched existence.