“For all the best teachers pride themselves on having a large number of pupils and think themselves worthy of a bigger audience.”

Vain hopes are like certain dreams of those who wake.

Forbidden pleasures alone are loved immoderately; when lawful, they do not excite desire.

Everything that has a beginning comes to an end.

He who speaks evil only differs from his who does evil in that he lacks opportunity.

Fear of the future is worse than one’s present fortune.

The obscurity of a writer is generally in proportion to his incapacity.

That which prematurely arrives at perfection soon perishes.

Conscience is a thousand witnesses.

God, that all-powerful Creator of nature and architect of the world, has impressed man with no character so proper to distinguish him from other animals, as by the faculty of speech.

Men of quality are in the wrong to undervalue, as they often do, the practise of a fair and quick hand in writing; for it is no immaterial accomplishment.

One thing, however, I must premise, that without the assistance of natural capacity, rules and precepts are of no efficacy.

A liar should have a good memory.

She abounds with lucious faults.

The perfection of art is to conceal art.

Too exact, and studious of similitude rather than of beauty.

Those who wish to appear wise among fools, among the wise seem foolish.

As an audience member, I like the sound of something that’s been written – I like it to sound written. And then, of course, you can’t do it without the musicians who can play it.

Trying to guess what the (mass) audience wants and then trying to satisfy that is usually a bad recipe for getting something good.

The main thing is to be satisfied with your work yourself. It’s useless to have an audience happy if you are not happy.

I think there are two ways to depict a family. One is what it’s really like, and one is what the audience would like it to be. Between you and me, I think the second one is what I would prefer.

There’s that process of writing it – then you come out of your room into the sunlight, and you now have to complete the circuit and make the connection finally with the audience.

I was born, so that the whole world could be a spectator Of my triumph or my doom.

I began to work the stage and get the audience into it. I also learned how to have fun out there. It is something I will never forget.

I never understood the need for a “live” audience. My music, because of its extreme quietude, would be happiest with a dead one.