No one could possibly act more kindly, more nobly, more delicately than our friend Mme. Laussot! I should have thought, dear wife, that it would have really uplifted you to see what a deep impression your husband's work can make on wholesome, unperverted, noble hearts; to see that he is able to influence them to make such sacrifices because of their warm sympathy! Can you find it in your heart to despise such a success of my art, for that alone has brought this about, or even to rate it lower than the so-called "brilliant" successes attained to-day by speculation and trickery from the stupid, slovenly, heartless majority of the great theatre-going public? You see now the real nature of these cowardly, slack people, who once seemed well enough pleased with me, and how despicably they have behaved towards me. Are we to despise these people and yet think only of money? Good, then here is money, as much as we need to live in peace and comfort, money too, not juggled out of the pockets of the stingy crowd, but offered to me in the most delicate fashion by a noble heart, out of joy in my works, just as I make them out of my true innermost nature! What more do you want?
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 168