Quotes About Ludwig Van Beethoven

#1. For many artists fame complements the value of creative self-expression. Ludwig van Beethoven loved composing music, but he probably would have enjoyed it less if no one ever listened to the product.

Tyler Cowen

#2. On behalf of all that is good and melodic, Ludwig van Beethoven, I apologize.

Sarah Strohmeyer

#3. I have never thought of writing for reputation and honor. What I have in my heart must come out; that is the reason why I compose. - Ludwig van Beethoven

Guy Kawasaki

#4. Hide your secret even from the closest friend; learn to be silent ...

Ludwig Van Beethoven

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

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#6. A Beethoven string-quartet is truly, as some one has said, a scraping of horses' tails on cats' bowels, and may be exhaustively described in such terms; but the application of this description in no way precludes the simultaneous applicability of an entirely different description.

William James

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

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#8. Consciousness is our gateway to experience: It enables us to recognize Van Gogh's starry skies, be enraptured by Beethoven's Fifth, and stand in awe of a snowcapped mountain. Yet consciousness is subjective, personal, and famously difficult to examine.

Daniel Bor

#9. 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.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#10. I shall seize fate by the throat.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#11. Don't only practise your art, but force your way into its secrets.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#12. 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.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#13. Music is the mediator between the life of the senses and the life of the spirit.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

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

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#15. Mistakes - mistakes - you yourself are a unique mistake!

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#16. What is to reach the heart must come from above; if it does not come from thence, it will be nothing but notes, body without spirit.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#17. Only art and science can raise men to the level of God.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#18. The day-to-day exhausted me!

Ludwig Van Beethoven

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

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#20. I must confess that I lead a miserable life. For almost two years, I have ceased to attend any social functions, just because I find it impossible to say to people, 'I am deaf.' If I had any other profession, I might be able to cope with my infirmity; but in my profession, it is a terrible handicap.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#21. 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.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#22. Handel, to him I bow the knee.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#23. Nothing is more intolerable than to have admit to yourself your own errors.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#24. Music can change the world.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

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

Ludwig Van Beethoven

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

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#27. 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.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#28. To do good whenever one can, to love liberty above all else, never to deny the truth, even though it be before the throne.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#29. Music from my fourth year began to be the first of my youthful occupations. Thus early acquainted with the gracious muse who tuned my soul to pure harmonies, I became fond of her, and, as it often seemed to me, she of me.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

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

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#31. 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.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#32. I love a tree more than a man.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

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

Ludwig Van Beethoven

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

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#35. The true artist is not proud: he unfortunately sees that art has no limits; he feels darkly how far he is from the goal, and though he may be admired by others, he is sad not to have reached that point to which his better genius only appears as a distant, guiding sun.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#36. Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#37. A great poet is the most precious jewel of a nation.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#38. From the glow of enthusiasm I let the melody escape.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

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

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#40. Friends applaud, the comedy is over.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#41. Plaudite, amici, comedia finita est.
(Applaud, my friends, the comedy is over.)
[Said on his deathbed]

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#42. I despise a world which does not feel that music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

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

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#44. I want to seize fate by the throat.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

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

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#46. I carry my thoughts about with me for a long time, often for a very long time, before writing them down.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#47. 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.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#48. Music is mediator between spiritual and sensual life.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#49. 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.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#50. You - my life - my All - farewell.
Oh, go on loving me - never doubt
the faithfullest heart
Of your beloved
L
Ever thine
Ever mine
Ever ours.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#51. 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?

Ludwig Van Beethoven

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

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#53. 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.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

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

Ludwig Van Beethoven

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

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#56. There ought to be an artistic depot where the artist need only hand in his artwork in order to receive what he asks for. As things are, one must be half a business man, and how can one understand - good heavens! - that's what I really call troublesome.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#57. Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#58. Art! Who comprehends her? With whom can one consult concerning this great goddess?

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#59. I wish you music to help with the burdens of life ,and to help you release your happiness to others.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#60. To play without passion is inexcusable!

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#61. We mortals with immortal minds are only born for sufferings and joys, and one could almost say that the most excellent receive joy through sufferings.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#62. The guitar is an orchestra in itself.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

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

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#64. Art always demands of us something new.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#65. Love demands all, and has a right to all.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

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

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#67. Life would be flat without music. It is the background to all I do. It speaks to the heart in its own special way like nothing else.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#68. Recommend virtue to your children; it alone, not money, can make them happy. I speak from experience.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#69. An artist is someone who has learned to trust in himself.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#70. Everything should be at once surprising and inevitable.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

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

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#72. Fate gave to man the courage of endurance.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#73. I will take fate by the throat; it will never bend me completely to its will.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#74. I only live in my music, and I have scarcely begun one thing when I start on another. As I am now working, I am often engaged on three or four things at the same time.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#75. 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!

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#76. Only the pure of heart can make a good soup.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

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

Ludwig Van Beethoven

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

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#79. Music is the wine which inspires one to new generative processes, and I am Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for mankind and makes them spiritually drunken.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#80. I like your opera - I think I will set it to music

Ludwig Van Beethoven

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

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#82. Often, I can scarcely hear any one speaking to me; the tones yes, but not the actual words; yet as soon as any one shouts, it is unbearable. What will come of all this, heaven only knows!

Ludwig Van Beethoven

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

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#84. The barriers are not erected which can say to aspiring talents and industry, 'Thus far and no farther.'

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#85. Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#86. I know no other sign of superiority than Goodness.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#87. When somewhat at a distance, I cannot hear the high tones of instruments, voices. In speaking, it is not surprising that there are people who have never noticed it, for as a rule I am absent-minded, and they account for it in that way.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#88. The guitar is a miniature orchestra in itself.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

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

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#90. To sing a wrong note is insignificant, but to sing without passion is unforgivable.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#91. 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.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#92. We all make mistakes, but everyone makes different mistakes

Ludwig Van Beethoven

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

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#94. 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?

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#95. Art demands of us that we shall not stand still.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#96. Recommend to your children virtues, that alone can make them happy, not gold.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#97. The foundation of friendship demands the greatest likeness of human souls and hearts.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#98. You will not find a treatise that is too learned for me; without laying claim to any genuine learning, I yet accustomed myself from childhood onwards to grasp the spirit of the best and wisest in every age. Shame on the artist who does not consider it his duty to achieve at least so much.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

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

Ludwig Van Beethoven

#100. ever thine, ever mine, ever ours

Ludwig Van Beethoven