When You Play, Never Mind Who Listens

Think It A Vile Habit To Alter Works Of Good Composers, To Omit Parts Of Them, Or To Insert New-fashioned Ornaments. This Is The Greatest Insult You Can Offer To Art.

I Sometimes Lack Confidence In Public, Although I Am Proud Enough Inwardly.

Mendelssohn I Consider The First Musician Of The Day; I Doff My Hat To Him As My Superior. He Plays With Everything, Especially With The Grouping Of The Instruments In The Orchestra, But With Such Ease, Delicacy And Art, With Such Mastery Throughout.

Thus It Is Ever In Life. The Aims We Once Pursued No Longer Satisfy Us; We Aim, We Strive, We Aspire, Until Sight Fails, And Mind And Body Find Rest In The Grave.

An Evil Fate Has Deprived Me Of The Full Use Of My Right Hand, So That I Am Not Able To Play My Compositions As I Feel Them. The Trouble With My Hand Is That Certain Fingers Have Become So Weak, Probably Through Writing And Playing Too Much At One Time, That I Can Hardly Use Them.