(Mannheim, December 10, 1777, to his father. Count Ferdinand von Zeil was Prince Bishop of Chimsee and favorably disposed towards Mozart, who was hoping for an appointment in Munich. "If he wants to do something he can; all Munich told me that." Nothing came of it.)
148. "Whoever judges me by such bagatelles is also a scamp!"
(Mozart wrote many occasional pieces for his friends,—fitting them to the players' capacities. Mozart said that the publisher who bought some of these "bagatelles" and printed them without applying to him was a scamp (Lump), but took no proceedings against him.)
149. "Very well; then I shall earn nothing more, go hungry and the devil a bit will I care!"
(Mozart's answer to Hofmeister, the Leipsic publisher, who had said: "Write in a more popular style or I can neither print nor pay for anything of yours.")
STRIVINGS AND LABORS
150. "We live in this world only that we may go onward without ceasing, a peculiar help in this direction being that one enlightens the other by communicating his ideas; in the sciences and fine arts there is always more to learn."
(Salzburg, September 7, 1776, to Padre Martini of Bologna, whose opinion he asks concerning a motet which the Archbishop of Salzburg had faulted.)
151. "I am just now reading 'Telemachus;' I am in the second part."
(Bologna, September 8, 1770, to his mother and sister.)