Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets, for it and knowledge can raise men to the divine. - Ludwig van Beethoven

Never overtly show all men the contempt which they deserve, for one can never know when one may need them.

From the glow of enthusiasm I let the melody escape. I pursue it. Breathless I catch up with it. It flies again; it disappears; it plunges into a chaos of diverse emotions. I catch it again; I seize it; I embrace it with delight.

You will not find a treatise that is too learned for me; without laying claim to any genuine learning, I yet accustomed myself from childhood onwards to grasp the spirit of the best and wisest in every age. Shame on the artist who does not consider it his duty to achieve at least so much.