I should like to know for what reason idleness is so popular with many young people that it is impossible to dissuade them from it either by words or… - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

It is a mistake to think that the practice of my art has become easy to me. I assure you, dear friend, no one has given so much care to the study of composition as I. There is scarcely a famous master in music whose works I have not frequently and diligently studied.

I know myself, and I have such a sense of religion that I shall never do anything which I would not do before the whole world; but I am alarmed at the very thoughts of being in the society of people, during my journey, whose mode of thinking is so entirely different from mine (and from that of all good people). But of course they must do as they please. I have no heart to travel with them, nor could I enjoy one pleasant hour, nor know what to talk about; for, in short, I have no great confidence in them. Friends who have no religion cannot be long our friends.

I had the honour of kissing St. Peter's foot at Sanct Pietro, and because I have the misfortune of being so small I, the same old numbskull, Wolfgang Mozart, had to be lifted up.