[...] Never before in my whole life have I felt so happy and gay as in the summer of 1849 in glorious Switzerland. I admit that even my grave anxiety about my wife could not stifle the feeling of well-being which persistently animated me as I cut through a knot which could not be untied and completely reconciled myself to myself. In my Dresden post I was the most irresolute and wavering of men, outwardly at peace only when I was a hypocrite, inwardly sterile as soon as I became genuine. That is over, and no trouble in life can ever again disturb the inner harmony of my nature. I know that the best work I can do—and which I must do because I can—will earn me not money but only love, and that, indeed, from those who understand me because they desire to understand me. So about money, too, I am without anxiety, for I know that love cares for me. [...]
And so—be content with the way things go with me!
[...] Ask Heinrich [Brockhaus] from me if he will keep the library in question together, as it was made over to him. Probably some time he will be relieved of it by the repayment of the sum lent me by him, so he would much oblige me if he would regard the books only as a pledge and not as a repayment. I thank him for his friendly offer to lend me certain books.—[...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 1, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 195