Quotes from Amadeus

Peter Shaffer ·  160 pages

Rating: (14.9K votes)


“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, quote from Amadeus


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


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


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


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



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


About the author

Peter Shaffer
Born place: in Liverpool, England, The United Kingdom
Born date May 15, 1926
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“It was Serena who'd said that motherhood was much too hard and, when you got right down to it, perhaps not worth the effort.”
― Anne Tyler, quote from Breathing Lessons


“Here I am looking at my lovely ten-year-old daughter, Maggie, in her white dress, singing Protestant hymns with the choir at the Plymouth Church of the Brethren when I should be at Mass praying for the repose of the soul of my mother, Angela McCourt, mother of seven, believer, sinner, though when I contemplate her seventy-three years on this earth I can’t believe the Lord God Almighty on His throne would even dream of consigning her to the flames. A God like that wouldn’t deserve the time of day.”
― Frank McCourt, quote from 'Tis A Memoir


“Go and play. Run around. Build something. Break something. Climb a tree. Get dirty. Get in some trouble. Have some fun.”
― Brom, quote from The Child Thief


“Life is full of change, honey. That's how we learn and grow. When we're born, the Good Lord gives each of us a Life Book. Chapter by chapter, we live and learn... When a chapter of your Life Book is complete, your spirit knows it's time to turn the page so a new chapter can begin. Even when you're scared or think you're not ready, your spirit knows you are.”
― Beth Hoffman, quote from Saving CeeCee Honeycutt


“Guilt wants to cover all the bases, be everywhere at once, reach into the past to tweak, neaten and repair. Guilt like Tourettic utterance flows uselessly, inelegantly from one helpless human to another, contemptuous of perimeters, doomed to be mistaken or refused on delivery.”
― Jonathan Lethem, quote from Motherless Brooklyn


Interesting books

Curse of the Bane
(23.2K)
Curse of the Bane
by Joseph Delaney
Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady
(7.1K)
Clarissa, or, the Hi...
by Samuel Richardson
Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie
(22.4K)
Drums, Girls & Dange...
by Jordan Sonnenblick
Return to Paradise
(31.2K)
Return to Paradise
by Simone Elkeles
Trial by Fire
(13.2K)
Trial by Fire
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
The Twelve
(72.4K)
The Twelve
by Justin Cronin

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.