Top 149 Quotes & Sayings by Ludwig van Beethoven - Page 2

I love a tree more than a man.

He that divines the secret of my music is freed from the unhappiness that haunts the whole world of men.

Don't regard yourself as too divine to improve, occasionally, your own works.

Everything should be at once surprising and inevitable.

We all make mistakes, but everyone makes different mistakes

The guitar is an orchestra in itself.

Recommend to your children to be virtuous, only the virtue can bring us happiness, not the money.

Recommend to your children virtue; that alone can make them happy, not gold.

All my life I have regarded myself as one of Mozart's greatest admirers, and I will remain one until my last breath.

If I contemplate myself as part of the Universe: what am I?

From the glow of enthusiasm I let the melody escape. I pursue it. Breathless I catch up with it. It flies again, it disappears, it plunges into a chaos of diverse emotions. I catch it again, I seize it, I embrace it with delight... I multiply it by modulations, and at last I triumph in the first theme. There is the whole symphony.

But what a humiliation for me when someone standing next to me heard a flute in the distance and I heard nothing, or someone standing next to me heard a shepherd singing and again I heard nothing. Such incidents drove me almost to despair; a little more of that and I would have ended my life - it was only my art that held me back.

I know of no more sacred duty than to rear and educate a child.

Oh you men who think or say that I am malevolent, stubborn, or misanthropic, how greatly do you wrong me. You do not know the secret cause which makes me seem that way to you. Oh how harshly was I flung back by the doubly sad experience of my bad hearing.

Love, and love alone, is capable of giving thee a happier life.

It is the power of music to carry one directly into the mental state of the composer.

In the world of art, as in the whole of creation, freedom and progress are the main objectives.

No friend have I. I must live by myself alone; but I know well that God is nearer to me than others in my art, so I will walk fearlessly with Him.

My misfortune is doubly painful to me because it will result in my being misunderstood. For me there can be no recreation in the company of others, no intelligent conversation, no exchange of information with peers; only the most pressing needs can make me venture into society. I am obliged to live like an outcast.

There is no greater pleasure for me than to practice and exhibit my art.

You're a happy fellow, for you'll give happiness and joy to many other people. There is nothing better or greater than that.

The world is a king, and like a king, desires flattery in return for favor; but true art is selfish and perverse — it will not submit to the mold of flattery.

The amount of money one needs is terrifying.

In praise of Thy goodness I must confess that Thou didst try with all Thy means to draw me to Thee. Sometimes it pleased Thee to let me feel the heavy hand of Thy displeasure and to humiliate my proud heart by manifold castigations. Sickness and misfortune didst Thou send upon me to turn my thoughts to my errantries.-One thing, only, O Father, do I ask: cease not to labor for my betterment. In whatsoever manner it be, let me turn to Thee and become fruitful in good works.

Mistakes - mistakes - you yourself are a unique mistake!

Applaud my friends, the comedy is over... [on his death bed]

Love demands all, and has a right to all.

Fate gave to man the courage of endurance.

I am resolved to rise superior to every obstacle. With whom need I be afraid of measuring my strength? I will take Fate by the throat. It shall not overcome me. O how beautiful it is to be alive - would that I could live a thousand times!

Never forget the days I spent with you. Continue to be my friend, as you will always find me yours.

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life. Although the spirit be not master of that which it creates through music, yet it is blessed in this creation, which, like every creation of art, is mightier than the artist.

Good Morning, on July 7 My thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved I can only live wholly with you or not at all- Be calm my life, my all. Only by calm consideration of our existence can we achieve our purpose to live together. Oh continue to love me, never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved. Ever Thine Ever Mine Ever Yours

I know no other sign of superiority than Goodness.

Wherever you are, I am there also.

I can live only wholly with you or not at all.

The real artist has no pride. Unfortunately he sees that his art has no limits. He feels obscurely how far he is from the goal. While he is perhaps being admired by others, he mourns the fact that he has not yet reached the point to which his better genius, like a distant sun, ever beckons to him.

I carry my thoughts about with me for a long time... before writing them down... once I have grasped a theme. I shall not forget it even years later. I change many things, discard others, and try again and again until I am satisfied; then, in my head... [the work] rises, it grows, I hear and see the image n front of me from every angle... and only the labor of writing it down remains... I turn my ideas into tones that resound, roar, and rage until at last they stand before me in the form of notes.

I would rather write 10,000 notes than a single letter of the alphabet.

There are and always will be thousands of princes, but there is only one Beethoven!

I want to seize fate by the throat.

I have always reckoned myself among the greatest admirers of Mozart, and shall do so till the day of my death.

Music is the electric soil in which the spirit thinks, lives and invents. All that's electrical stimulates the mind to flowing surging musical creation. I am electrical by nature.

Oh, how beautiful it is to be alive - would that I could live a thousand times

The Music is the only corporeal introduction to the superior world of Knowledge.

Artists who have won fame are often embarrassed by it; thus their first works are often their best.

Only art and science make us suspect the existence of life to a higher level, and maybe also instill hope thereof.

In the country It seems as if every tree Said to me 'Holy! Holy!' Who can ever express The ecstasy of the woods! Almighty One, In the woods I am blessed. Happy every one in the woods. Every tree speaks through Thee. O God! What glory in the woodland.

He who understand my music will remain free from the miseries that the other men are dragging with them .

I liked your opera. I think I will set it to music.

ever thine, ever mine, ever ours

Men are not only together when they are with each other; even the distant and the dead live with us.

Anyone who tells a lie has not a pure heart, and cannot make a good soup.

It seemed unthinkable for me to leave the world forever before I had produced all that I felt called upon to produce

From the glow of enthusiasm I let the melody escape.

Rossini would have been a great composer if his teacher had spanked him enough on his backside.

I alter some things, eliminate and try again until I am satisfied. Then begins the mental working out of this material in its breadth, its narrowness, its height and depth.

My heart is full of many things there are moments when I feel that speech is nothing after all.

such incidents brought me to the verge of despair, but little more and I would have put an end to my life - only art it was that withheld me, - ah, it seemed impossible to leave the world until I had produced all that I had felt called upon to produce.

Let your deafness no longer be a secret - even in art.

Händel is the greatest and ablest of all composers; from him I can still learn.