Once again I feel very much and very deeply discouraged. My chief emotion is one of utter resignation, so futile do all my efforts seem to me. True, I can honestly tell myself that I ask nothing more of the world but a place to work in and undisturbed leisure to work there; I desire neither fortune nor happiness; yet it is just this one want of mine that I ought not really to ask the world to supply, for it is not its business to assist men to rise above itself.
The people best of all adapted worthily to represent the world in its dealings with the artist have always been the princes, because they have been raised above the practical wants of life and the necessity of providing them. But if one examines all the conditions of such patronage, one finds as much that is oppressive, injurious, vain and dishonest there as elsewhere, and no one is less fitted than I to hazard even the most promising chance of a happy exception, since I care absolutely nothing for the externals which are of the essence of this matter. Now you wish, entre nous, to do all in your power to take the place of music publisher and prince? Oh God, were I in your place and could do so I would do the same, for giving is more blessed than taking, and that, indeed, lies at the very root of my art, since it is giving, in my way, that has actually exhausted all my powers. I scarcely thank you for your fine offer, for I know assuredly that the sense of being able to make such an offer must be a delight that brings its own reward far beyond anything that my thanks can do. Should you be able fully to carry out your proposals on my behalf, indeed to take no mean place therein, it would be a true heart's joy to me to assure you of it with all the vigour and determination I possess. Would it please you to lift yourself and me so high?
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 312