Amadeus Quotes

“I looked on astounded as from his ordinary life he made his art. We were both ordinary men, he and I. Yet from the ordinary he created Legends--and I from Legends created only the ordinary!”
― Peter Shaffer, Amadeus

“Goodness is nothing in the furnace of art.”
― Peter Shaffer, Amadeus

“What use, after all, is man, if not to teach God His lessons?”
― Peter Shaffer, Amadeus

“God was singing through this little man to all the world.”
― Peter Shaffer, Amadeus

“Tell me, before you call us servants, who served whom? And who, I wonder, in your generations, will immortalize you?”
― Peter Shaffer, Amadeus

“Oh, you monster!No one exists but you, do they? You and your music!”
― Peter Shaffer, Amadeus

“Emperor Joseph II: My dear young man, don't take it too hard. Your work is ingenious. It's quality work. And there are simply too many notes, that's all. Just cut a few and it will be perfect.

Mozart: Which few did you have in mind, Majesty?”
― Peter Shaffer, Amadeus

“I have been listening to the cats in the courtyard. They are all singing Rossini. It is obvious that cats have declined as badly as composers. Domenico Scarlatti owned one which would actually stroll across the keyboard and pick out passable subjects for fugue. But that was a Spanish cat of the Enlightenment. It appreciated counterpoint. Nowadays all cats appreciate are coloratura. Like the rest of the Public.”
― Peter Shaffer, Amadeus

“I eat what God gives me. Dose after dose. For all of life. His poison. We are both poisoned, Amadeus. I with you: you with me.”
― Peter Shaffer, Amadeus

“I bet you that's how God hears the world! Millions of sounds ascending at once and mixing in His ear to become an unending music, unimaginable to us!”
― Peter Shaffer, Amadeus

“What shall I say to you who will one day hear this last act for yourselves? You will—because whatever else shall pass away, this must remain.”
― Peter Shaffer, Amadeus