Never shall I forget the time I spent with you. Please continue to be my friend, as you will always find me yours.
—Ludwig van Beethoven
Topics: Friends and Friendship
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
Topics: Individuality
Friends applaud, the comedy is over.
—Ludwig van Beethoven
Topics: Last Words, Famous Last Words
Music – The one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.
—Ludwig van Beethoven
Art! Who comprehends her? With whom can one consult concerning this great goddess?
—Ludwig van Beethoven
Topics: Artists, Art, Arts
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.
—Ludwig van Beethoven
Topics: Enthusiasm
Artists who have won fame are often embarrassed by it; thus their first works are often their best.
—Ludwig van Beethoven
Topics: Art
What will be the judgment a century hence concerning the lorded works of our favorite composers today? Inasmuch as nearly everything is subject to the changes of time, and – more’s the pity- the fashions of time, only that which is good and true will endure like a rock and no wanton hand will ever venture to defile it. Then, let every man do that which is right, strive with all his might towards the goal which can never be obtained, develop to the last breath the gifts with which the gracious Creator has endowed him, and never cease to learn. For life is short, art eternal.
—Ludwig van Beethoven
Topics: Music
Music is mediator between spiritual and sensual life.
—Ludwig van Beethoven
Topics: Music
Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth.
—Ludwig van Beethoven
Topics: Music
This is the mark of a really admirable man: steadfastness in the face of trouble.
—Ludwig van Beethoven
Topics: Trouble
Nothing is more intolerable than to have to admit to yourself your own errors.
—Ludwig van Beethoven
Topics: Humility
No one should drive a hard bargain with an artist.
—Ludwig van Beethoven
Topics: Arts, Art, Artists
Only the pure in heart can make a good soup.
—Ludwig van Beethoven
Topics: Food, Eating
Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears form the eyes of woman.
—Ludwig van Beethoven
Topics: Music
Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.
—Ludwig van Beethoven
Topics: Music
Fate gave to man the courage of endurance.
—Ludwig van Beethoven
Topics: Perseverance
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.
—Ludwig van Beethoven
Topics: Music
The barriers are not erected which can say to aspiring talents and industry, “Thus far and no farther.”
—Ludwig van Beethoven
Topics: Potential, Possibilities
One must not hold one’s self so divine as to be unwilling occasionally to make improvements in one’s creations.
—Ludwig van Beethoven
Topics: Perfection
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Johann Sebastian Bach German Composer
Claude Debussy French Composer
Konrad Adenauer German Statesman
Hector Berlioz French Composer
Jean Sibelius Finnish Composer
Igor Stravinsky Russian-born American Composer
E. F. Schumacher German Mathematician
Friedrich Nietzsche German Philosopher, Scholar
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe German Poet
Gian Carlo Menotti Italian-born American Composer