Top 149 Quotes & Sayings by Ludwig van Beethoven - Page 3

I can do nothing but think of you... What have you done to me? Can't you remove the spell you have cast over me?

Only the flint of a man's mind can strike fire in music.

There is no loftier mission than to approach the Godhead more nearly than other mortals, and by means of that contact to spread the rays of the Godhead through the human race.

I carry my thoughts about me for a long time, often a very long time, before I write them down; meanwhile my memory is so faithful that I am sure never to forget, not even in years, a theme that has once occurred to me.

I shall seize fate by the throat.

Handel is the greatest composer that ever lived... I would uncover my head and kneel down on his tomb.

This is not a brook [Bach means "brook" in German], it's an ocean.

Oh continue to love me, never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved. Ever thine. Ever mine. Ever ours.

Handel, to him I bow the knee.

After Rossini dies, who will be there to promote his music?

Whoever tells a lie is not pure of heart, and such a person can not cook a clean soup.

Of all my children, this is the one that cost me the worst birth-pangs and brought me the most sorrow; and for that reason it is the one most dear to me.

When I open my eyes I must sigh, for what I see is contrary to my religion, and I must despise the world which does not know that music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.

Recommend virtue to your children, that alone - not wealth - can give happiness. It upholds in adversity and the thought of it and my art prevents me from putting an end to my life.

I don't want to know anything about your system of ethics. Strength is the morality of the man who stands out from the rest, and it is mine.

Strange, I feel as if up to now I had written no more than a few notes.

Artists are fiery; they do not weep.

Richard Wagner commenting on the music of Ludvig Van Beethoven: He was a Titan, wrestling with the Gods.

Figured Bass (Harmony) and Religion are self-contained things, one should not argue these.

To me the highest thing, after God, is my honor.

There ought to be only one large art warehouse in the world, to which the artist could carry his art-works and from which he could carry away whatever he needed. As it is one must be half a tradesman.

It is my wish that you may have at better and freer life than I have had. Recommend virtue to your children; it alone, not money, can make them happy. I speak from experience; this was what upheld me in time of misery.

It is my belief one should not belittle the artist; while, however glorious his fame may seem, his time on Mount Olympus as an honourable guest of Zeus is short. It's a pity, but all too eager will the common folk drag him from this etherial heights to the low and trodden earth.

Yet it was impossible for me to say to people, 'Speak louder, shout, for I am deaf.' Ah, how could I possibly admit an infirmity in the one sense which ought to be more perfect in me than others, a sense which I once possessed in the highest perfection, a perfection such as few in my profession enjoy or ever have enjoyed.

One must not hold one's self so divine as to be unwilling occasionally to make improvements in one's creations.

Music is mediator between spiritual and sensual life.

I change many things, discard others, and try again and again until I am satisfied; then, in my head, I being to elaborate the work in its breadth, its narrowness, its height, its depth...I hear and see the image in front of me from every angle as if it had been cast and only the labour of writing it down remains.

There is no loftier mission than to approach the Divinity nearer than other men, and to disseminate the divine rays among mankind.

She was such a good loving mother, my best friend. Oh, who was happier than I when I could still say the dear name "Mother," and it was heard, and whom can I say it to now?