(Called out behind the back of a French officer, his fist doubled,
on May 12, 1809, when the French had occupied Vienna. Reported by a
witness, W. Rust.)
163. “Camillus, if I am not mistaken, was the name of the Roman who drove the wicked Gauls from Rome. At such a cost I would also take the name if I could drive them wherever I found them to where they belong.”
(To Pleyel, publisher, in Paris, April, 1807.)
164. “I love most the realm of mind which, to me, is the highest of all spiritual and temporal monarchies.”
(To Advocate Kauka in the summer of 1814. He had been speaking about the
monarchs represented in the Congress of Vienna.)
165. “I shall not come in person, since that would be a sort of farewell, and farewells I have always avoided.”
(January 24, 1818, to Giannatasio del Rio, on taking his nephew Karl out
of the latter institute.)
166. “I hope still to bring a few large works into the world, and then, like an old child, to end my earthly career somewhere among good people.”
(October 6, 1802, to Wegeler.)
167. “O ye men, who think or declare me to be hostile, morose or misanthropical, what injustice ye do me. Ye know not the secret cause of what thus appears to you. My heart and mind were from childhood disposed for the tender feelings of benevolence; I was always wishing to accomplish great deeds.”