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Quotes by Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

“Your love makes me at once the happiest and the unhappiest of men”

Ludwig van Beethoven

God, who knows my innermost soul, and knows how sacredly I have fulfilled all the duties but upon me as man by humanity, God and nature will surely some day relieve me from these afflictions." (July 18, 1821, to Archduke Rudolph, from Unterubling.) 244. "Friendship and similar sentiments bring only wounds to me. Well, so be it; for you, poor Beethoven, there is no outward happiness; you must create it within you,--only in the world of ideality shall you find friends." (About 1808, to Baron von Gleichenstein, by whom he thought himself slighted.) 245. "You are living on a quiet sea, or already in the safe harbor; you do not feel the distress of a friend out in the raging storm,--or you must not feel it." (In 1811, to his friend Gleichenstein, when Beethoven was in love with the Baron's sister-in-law, Therese Malfatti.) 246. "I must have a confidant at my side lest life become a burden." (July 4, 1812, to Count Brunswick, whom he is urging to make a tour with him, probably to Teplitz.) 247. "Your love makes me at once the happiest and the unhappiest of men. At my age I need a certain uniformity and equableness of life; can such exist in our relationship?" (June 7, 1800 (?), to the "Immortal Beloved.") 248. "O Providence! vouchsafe me one day of pure joy! Long has the echo of perfect felicity been absent from my heart. When O, when, O Thou Divine One, shall I feel it again in nature's temple and man's? Never? Ah! that would be too hard!" (Conclusion of the Heiligenstadt Will.) WORLDLY WISDOM 249. "Freedom,--progress, is purpose in the art-world as in universal creation, and if we moderns have not the hardihood of our ancestors, refinement of manners has surely accomplished something." (Middling, July 29, 1819, to Archduke Rudolph.) 250. "The boundaries are not yet fixed which shall call out to talent and industry: thus far and no further!" (Reported by Schindler.) 251. "You know that the sensitive spirit must not be bound to miserable necessities." (In the summer of 1814, to Johann Kauka, the advocate who represented him in the prosecution of his claims against the heirs of Prince Kinsky.

Music is ... A higher revelation than all Wisdom & Philosophy

Ludwig van Beethoven

The letter asked Cherubini to interest himself in obtaining a subscription from King Louis XVIII for the Solemn Mass in D). [Cherubini declared that he had never received the letter. That it was not only the hope of obtaining a favor which prompted Beethoven to express so high an admiration for Cherubini, is plain from a remark made by the English musician Cipriani Potter to A. W. Thayer in 1861. I found it in Thayer's note-books which were placed in my hands for examination after his death. One day Potter asked, "Who is the greatest living composer, yourself excepted?" Beethoven seemed puzzled for a moment, and then exclaimed, "Cherubini." H. E. K.] 6. "Truth exists for the wise; beauty for the susceptible heart. They belong together--are complementary." (Written in the autograph book of his friend, Lenz von Breuning, in 1797.) 7. "When I open my eyes, a sigh involuntarily escapes me, for all that I see runs counter to my religion; perforce I despise the world which does not intuitively feel that music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy." (Remark made to Bettina von Arnim, in 1810, concerning Viennese society. Report in a letter by Bettina to Goethe on May 28, 1810.) 8. "Art! Who comprehends her? With whom can one consult concerning this great goddess?" (August 11, 1810, to Bettina von Arnim.) 9. "In the country I know no lovelier delight than quartet music." (To Archduke Rudolph, in a letter addressed to Baden on July 24, 1813.) 10. "Nothing but art, cut to form like old-fashioned hoop-skirts. I never feel entirely well except when I am among scenes of unspoiled nature." (September 24, 1826, to Breuning, while promenading with Breuning's family in the Schonbrunner Garden, after calling attention to the alleys of trees "trimmed like walls, in the French manner.") 11. "Nature knows no quiescence; and true art walks with her hand in hand; her sister--from whom heaven forefend us!--is called artificiality." (From notes in the lesson book of Archduke Rudolph, following some remarks on the expansion of the expressive capacity of music.

“The barriers are not erected which can say to aspiring talents and industry, Thus far and no farther.”

Ludwig van Beethoven

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

Ludwig van Beethoven

“Nothing is more intolerable than to have to admit to yourself your own errors”

Ludwig van Beethoven

“Applaud friends, the comedy is over. (Said as he was dying)”

Ludwig van Beethoven

“What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven.”

Ludwig van Beethoven

“Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.”

Ludwig van Beethoven

“I am resolved to wander so long away from you until I can fly to your arms and say that I am really at home with you, and can send my soul enwrapped in you into the land of spirits.”

Ludwig van Beethoven

“I can live only wholly with you or not at all”

Ludwig van Beethoven

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

Ludwig van Beethoven

“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.”

Ludwig van Beethoven

Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets, for it and knowledge can raise men to the divine.

Ludwig van Beethoven

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

Ludwig van Beethoven

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. I would, perhaps, rather come to you and your people, than to many rich folk who display inward poverty.

Ludwig van Beethoven

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

Ludwig van Beethoven

Music is like a dream. One that I cannot hear.

Ludwig van Beethoven

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

Ludwig van Beethoven

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.

Ludwig van Beethoven

I shall seize fate by the throat.

Ludwig van Beethoven

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