If Heaven has bestowed on you a fine imagination
you will often be seated at your piano
in solitary hours
as if attached to it;
you will desire to express the feelings of your heart
in harmony
and the more clouded the sphere of harmony
may perhaps be to you
the more mysteriously you will feel
as if drawn into magic circles.
In youth these may be
your happiest hours.
Beware however
of abandoning yourself
too often
to the influence of a talent
that induces you
to lavish powers and time
as it were upon phantoms
Mastery over the forms of composition
and a clear expression of your ideas
can only be attained by constant writing
Write therefore
more than you improvise
Robert Schumann