Neither A Lofty Degree Of Intelligence

Despite its wide circulation, this quote is not from Mozart but from his friend Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin, who wrote these words into Mozart's personal souvenir album on 11 April 1787. Maynard Solomon identified the true author in Mozart: A Life (HarperCollins, 1995, p. 312). The confusion arose because many entries in Mozart's album — a common keepsake format of the time, in which friends wrote mottoes and verses — were later attributed to Mozart himself rather than to the people who wrote them. Jacquin was a botanist and close friend in Vienna; Mozart dedicated several songs to members of the Jacquin family.