"A man only becomes wise when he begins to calculate the approximate depth of his ignorance."

"Waiting and hoping are the whole of life, and as soon as a dream is realized it is destroyed."

"Melody is a form of remembrance. It must have a quality of inevitability in our ears."

"Hell begins on the day when God grants us a clear vision of all that we might have achieved, of all the gifts which we have wasted, of all that we might have done which we did not do."

"Any subject is good for opera if the composer feels it so intently he must sing it out."

"Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers - and never succeeding."