26 Mozart Quotes: Music, Mischief and Life
From noisy opera finales to outrageous goodnight wishes, Mozart’s words reveal a playful, affectionate and fiercely ambitious musician. Explore 26 quotations about music, work, family and life.
Mozart could be tender, impatient, outrageously silly and very sure of himself. His letters move between family news and musical ideas with barely a pause.
These 26 quotations offer a glimpse of the person behind the music.
Mozart at the theatre
“The more noise, the better; the shorter, the better.”
To Leopold Mozart, Vienna, 26 September 1781. [1]
He is planning the end of the first act of Die Entführung aus dem Serail. Make a splash, then stop before the audience loses its appetite for applause. Mozart knew how to bring down a curtain.
“I think nobody will be able to sleep through it, even after having had no sleep all night.”
To Leopold Mozart, Vienna, 26 September 1781. [1]
The same opera’s overture switches between loud and soft passages, with its noisy ‘Turkish’ effects bursting in. Mozart is enjoying the prospect of waking up his listeners.
“I need only hear talk of an opera, only be in the theatre and hear voices—oh, then I am already quite beside myself.”
To Leopold Mozart, Munich, 11 October 1777. [2]
He is excited about a possible opera commission in Naples. The journey would be long and expensive, but the prospect of writing for the stage is hard to resist.
“And I am happier because I have something to compose, which is, after all, my only joy and passion.”
To Leopold Mozart, Munich, 11 October 1777. [2]
In the same discussion, Mozart imagines writing further operas to keep himself occupied and build his reputation. Composition is both his livelihood and the activity he longs to return to.
“In an opera, poetry must simply be the obedient daughter of music.”
To Leopold Mozart, Vienna, 13 October 1781. [3]
Mozart is defending the words of Die Entführung. He wants a strong dramatic plan, but objects to forced rhymes that spoil a musical idea. The best partnership, he adds, is a composer who understands theatre and a sensible poet.
“My musical ideas, which had already been strolling around in my head.”
To Leopold Mozart, Vienna, 13 October 1781. [3]
This lovely image comes from his explanation of Osmin’s music. The ideas were already taking shape before the wording was settled; the text then fitted them closely enough to win him over.
The affectionate son—and the mischief-maker
“I cannot write poetically; I am no poet. I cannot arrange phrases so artfully that they give light and shade; I am no painter. I cannot even express my feelings and thoughts through gestures and pantomime; I am no dancer. But I can do it through sounds; I am a musician.”
Postscript to Leopold Mozart, Mannheim, 8 November 1777. [4]
For his father’s approaching birthday and name-day, Mozart promises to play a musical greeting at the piano. This is a son finding the right language to express affection.
“I wish you as many years of life as it would take before nothing new could be done in music.”
Postscript to Leopold Mozart, Mannheim, 8 November 1777. [4]
The greeting ends with a wonderfully extravagant wish. He also asks his father to keep loving him a little, until his small ‘box of understanding’ has acquired some new drawers.
“Now I wish you a good night; shit in the bed till it cracks.”
To his cousin Maria Anna Thekla Mozart, Mannheim, 5 November 1777. [5]
His cousin gets a less dignified greeting. The letter runs on silly rhymes, repetitions and rude jokes; this closing couplet is a rough English rendering of one of them. Mozart’s private correspondence could be gloriously childish.
“I soon grow weary when I have to keep writing for an instrument I cannot stand.”
To Leopold Mozart, Mannheim, 14 February 1778. [6]
Mozart is behind on a flute commission for Dejean, short of uninterrupted working time and defending the care he takes over pieces bearing his name. It is an irritated moment in a busy letter. He would also write the Concerto for Flute and Harp, K. 299.
Singers, listeners and musical pleasure
“I like an aria to fit a singer as precisely as a well-made suit.”
To Leopold Mozart, Mannheim, 28 February 1778. [7]
The tenor Anton Raaff liked Se al labro mio non credi, K. 295, but asked Mozart to shorten it because he could no longer sustain such long passages. Mozart readily agreed: writing for a voice meant listening to its owner.
“Learn the aria by yourself; sing it according to your own taste; then let me hear it.”
To Leopold Mozart, Mannheim, 28 February 1778; recalling his instructions to Aloysia Weber. [7]
With the young soprano Aloysia, he tried another approach: let her discover the aria first, then discuss it. Two days later she sang it while accompanying herself—and Mozart found that she had understood it just as he hoped.
“Music, even in the most dreadful situation, must never offend the ear, but must still give pleasure, and therefore must always remain music.”
To Leopold Mozart, Vienna, 26 September 1781. [1]
He is explaining how to portray Osmin’s growing rage in Die Entführung. The character loses control; the music changes pace and key. Mozart wants that fury to make its dramatic effect while remaining satisfying to hear.
“Give me the best keyboard in Europe, but listeners who understand nothing, or do not wish to understand, and who do not feel with me what I play, and I shall lose all pleasure.”
To Leopold Mozart, Paris, 1 May 1778. [8]
After waiting in a freezing room, Mozart had played while his hosts carried on drawing. Then one attentive listener sat beside him. He forgot the cold and headache and played with renewed enthusiasm, despite the poor instrument.
“What delights me most, however, is the quiet approval!”
To Constanze Mozart, Vienna, 7 October 1791, in a letter continued on 8 October. [9]
Reporting a packed performance of The Magic Flute, Mozart mentions numbers being repeated. But this quieter response gives him particular pleasure: he senses the opera winning its audience more and more.
“The concertos are just the middle way between too difficult and too easy—very brilliant, pleasing to the ear, natural without becoming empty.”
To Leopold Mozart, Vienna, 28 December 1782. [10]
These are the piano concertos K. 413, K. 414 and K. 415. Mozart is preparing music for Vienna’s paying public, balancing immediate pleasure with musical substance.
“Here and there, only connoisseurs can get satisfaction—but in such a way that non-connoisseurs must still be pleased, without knowing why.”
To Leopold Mozart, Vienna, 28 December 1782. [10]
He continues the description of those concertos. Experienced listeners can enjoy details that others may miss; everyone should still find something to love. That ambition helped shape his concert business in Vienna.
At the composing desk
“In general I have so much to do that I often do not know where my head is.”
To Leopold Mozart, Vienna, 28 December 1782. [10]
Lessons occupy him until two in the afternoon. Evenings are his chance to compose, unless a concert invitation intervenes. The letter is being rushed before guests arrive for music-making: a familiar picture of work competing with work.
“I myself consider it the best thing I have written in my life.”
To Leopold Mozart, Vienna, 10 April 1784. [11]
He means the Quintet for Piano and Winds, K. 452, which had received an enthusiastic response. Mozart wishes his father could have heard it. After so much playing, he admits to being tired—and takes pride in the fact that his listeners were not.
“Here, then, … are my six children. They are, it is true, the fruit of long and laborious work.”
Dedication to Joseph Haydn, Vienna, 1 September 1785. [12]
The ‘children’ are six string quartets, including the ‘Dissonance’ Quartet, K. 465. Mozart entrusts them to his admired friend. Affection and painstaking work share the same dedication.
“The reason this fugue came into the world is really my dear Constanze.”
To his sister Nannerl Mozart, Vienna, 20 April 1782. [13]
Constanze loved the fugues of Bach and Handel. After hearing Mozart improvise fugues, she pressed him to write one down. The result was the fugue sent to Nannerl with a prelude, K. 394. A fugue lets several musical voices take up the same theme in turn; Constanze clearly enjoyed following them.
Freedom and a wider world
“Outside my official duties I am my own master.”
To Leopold Mozart, Paris, 11 September 1778. [14]
Mozart is weighing a return to Salzburg. He imagines a secure position that would leave him time for his own work and permission to travel. His willingness to take a job comes with conditions.
“Without travelling—at least for people in the arts and sciences—one is a poor creature indeed!”
To Leopold Mozart, Paris, 11 September 1778. [14]
He insists on being allowed a journey every two years. Staying in one place, he argues, can damage a person of exceptional talent—and he frankly includes himself in that category. Travel has taught him things he wants to keep learning.
Love, life and mortality
“Perhaps you are already asleep? Hush! Hush! Hush! I do not want to wake you!”
To Constanze Mozart, Vienna, 7 October 1791. [9]
It is eleven at night, and he is writing after The Magic Flute. Constanze is away taking the waters in Baden. A letter cannot wake her, of course; the joke makes their distance feel a little smaller.
“I have made myself so familiar with this true, best friend of humankind that its image no longer holds anything frightening for me, but rather much that is calming and comforting.”
To Leopold Mozart, Vienna, 4 April 1787. [15]
The ‘friend’ is death. Mozart has heard that his father is seriously ill, and speaks of death as a key to happiness beyond this life. His faith gives him consolation; he also begs for honest news so that he can come to his father if needed.
“Yet none of those who know me can say that I am gloomy or sad in company.”
To Leopold Mozart, Vienna, 4 April 1787. [15]
In the same letter, Mozart says he goes to bed aware that he might not live to see the next day. That thought has not made him miserable. He thanks his Creator for this happiness and wishes it for everyone else.
Two famous sayings often misattributed to Mozart
The effortless flow of inspiration. The much-repeated passage beginning “When I am completely myself … my ideas flow best” comes from a forged letter published in 1815, long after Mozart’s death. It should not be used as his account of how he composed. His dedication to Haydn offers a more revealing phrase: ‘long and laborious work’. [16]
“What is worse than a flute? Two flutes!” No Mozart source supports this neat punchline. It is also attributed to Luigi Cherubini. Mozart’s grumble about the flute commission appears above; the familiar joke should not be put in his mouth. [17]
The quotations are translated into English from Mozart’s German letters and Italian dedication. An ellipsis marks an omission. Dates and sources are provided for readers who want to explore the surrounding passage.
Sources
[1] Wolfgang Amadé Mozart to Leopold Mozart, Vienna, 26 September 1781. Bauer/Deutsch no. 629. Digital Mozart Edition critical transcription. Lines 25–30 on Osmin and musical pleasure; lines 50–60 on the first-act ending and overture. Source.
[2] Wolfgang Amadé Mozart to Leopold Mozart, Munich, 11 October 1777. Bauer/Deutsch no. 347. Digital Mozart Edition critical transcription. Lines 80–95: proposed Naples commission, composition as joy and passion, and excitement about opera. Source.
[3] Wolfgang Amadé Mozart to Leopold Mozart, Vienna, 13 October 1781. Bauer/Deutsch no. 633. Digital Mozart Edition critical transcription. Lines 10–35: Osmin, ideas already forming, poetry serving music, and composer–poet collaboration. Source.
[4] Wolfgang Amadé Mozart, postscript to Leopold Mozart, Mannheim, 8 November 1777. Bauer/Deutsch no. 366. Digital Mozart Edition critical transcription. Lines 70–90: musician greeting, birthday/name-day wish and the box of understanding. The main letter is by Anna Maria Mozart; these passages are Wolfgang’s postscript. Source.
[5] Wolfgang Amadé Mozart to Maria Anna Thekla Mozart, Mannheim, 5 November 1777. Bauer/Deutsch no. 364. Digital Mozart Edition critical transcription. Lines 1–30: rhyming wordplay and the goodnight couplet. The English rendering of the couplet preserves the sense rather than the rhyme. Source.
[6] Wolfgang Amadé Mozart, postscript to Leopold Mozart, Mannheim, 14 February 1778. Bauer/Deutsch no. 423. Digital Mozart Edition critical transcription. Lines 45–65: Dejean’s commission, lack of time, care over work bearing his name and the disliked instrument. Main letter by Anna Maria Mozart dated 13 February. Source.
[7] Wolfgang Amadé Mozart to Leopold Mozart, Mannheim, 28 February 1778. Bauer/Deutsch no. 431. Digital Mozart Edition critical transcription. Lines 10–25: tailoring Se al labro mio non credi to Anton Raaff; lines 35–45: instructions to Aloysia Weber and her subsequent performance. Source.
[8] Wolfgang Amadé Mozart to Leopold Mozart, Paris, 1 May 1778. Bauer/Deutsch no. 447. Digital Mozart Edition critical transcription. Lines 20–50: the cold room, inattentive drawing party, attentive listener and best-keyboard comparison. Source.
[9] Wolfgang Amadé Mozart to Constanze Mozart, Vienna, 7 and 8 October 1791. Bauer/Deutsch no. 1193. Digital Mozart Edition critical transcription. Lines 1–10: packed Magic Flute performance and quiet approval; lines 30–35: eleven o’clock, supper and the hush joke. Both quotations belong to the portion written on 7 October. Source.
[10] Wolfgang Amadé Mozart to Leopold Mozart, Vienna, 28 December 1782. Bauer/Deutsch no. 715. Digital Mozart Edition critical transcription. Lines 1–15: teaching schedule, composing evenings and the subscription concertos K. 413–415; pleasure for connoisseurs and other listeners. Source.
[11] Wolfgang Amadé Mozart to Leopold Mozart, Vienna, 10 April 1784. Bauer/Deutsch no. 783. Digital Mozart Edition critical transcription. Lines 1–15: the Quintet for Piano and Winds, K. 452, its reception and Mozart’s fatigue after performing. Source.
[12] Wolfgang Amadé Mozart, dedication of six string quartets to Joseph Haydn, Vienna, 1 September 1785. Printed dedication in Artaria’s first edition. Text reproduced in John Irving, Mozart: The Haydn Quartets (Cambridge University Press, 1998), appendix, p. 85. The Italian wording is translated for this article; the address to Haydn is omitted with an ellipsis. Source.
[13] Wolfgang Amadé Mozart to Nannerl Mozart, Vienna, 20 April 1782. Bauer/Deutsch no. 668. Digital Mozart Edition critical transcription. Lines 10–30: prelude and fugue K. 394, Bach and Handel, Constanze’s enthusiasm and her request that Mozart write a fugue down. Constanze’s own postscript is not quoted. Source.
[14] Wolfgang Amadé Mozart to Leopold Mozart, Paris, 11 September 1778. Bauer/Deutsch no. 487. Digital Mozart Edition critical transcription. Lines 10–30: proposed return to Salzburg, autonomy outside service, permission to travel, and talent needing exposure to other places. The travel quotation retains the arts-and-sciences qualification. Source.
[15] Wolfgang Amadé Mozart to Leopold Mozart, Vienna, 4 April 1787. Bauer/Deutsch no. 1044. Digital Mozart Edition critical transcription. Lines 25–50: Leopold’s illness, consolation in death, faith, reflection before sleep, cheerful company and request for honest news. Source.
[16] Arturo García Gómez, ‘“Letter to a Someone Baron von…” of W. A. Mozart About the Creative Process’ (2017), abstract. Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas. DOI 10.22201/iie.18703062e.2017.1.2589. The abstract identifies the letter as apocryphal and dates its publication in Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung to 23 August 1815. Source.
[17] Charley Samson, Beethoven’s Choice Program Notes, Oakland Symphony (2016). Cherubini, Requiem in C minor: an example of the ‘two flutes’ joke being attributed to Cherubini. This does not establish Mozart authorship or a documented first occurrence of the joke. Source.
Image credits
Mozart at a writing desk: a modern editorial adaptation of Joseph Lange’s unfinished portrait. The desk, writing action and slight smile are imagined additions. Original portrait: Joseph Lange / Wikimedia Commons, AI-assisted adaptation: Mozart Portal. Image source. The added desk, letter-writing action and smile are modern imagined elements.
The ‘I am a musician’ passage in Mozart’s own handwriting, 8 November 1777. Historical facsimile from Leopold Schmidt’s Mozart (1920), following p. 64. Wolfgang Amadé Mozart; scan by Oursana / Wikimedia Commons. Image source. Displayed proportionally; no content alteration.
The cover of Mozart’s own work catalogue, headed ‘Verzeichnüss aller meiner Werke’ (‘Catalogue of all my works’), beginning with February 1784. This is his record of works, rather than a sketch sheet. Wolfgang Amadé Mozart / Wikimedia Commons. Image source. Displayed proportionally; no content alteration.
Mozart’s letter to his father, Vienna, 3 May 1783. This document illustrates his correspondence; the quotations here come from other letters. Wolfgang Amadé Mozart; reproduction by Pymouss, digital correction by Aavindraa / Wikimedia Commons. Image source. The selected reproduction already includes perspective and tone correction; no further edit was made.