Ludwig van Beethoven Quotes - Page 5

From the glow of enthusiasm I let the melody escape.

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

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

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?

Music is mediator between spiritual and sensual life.

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.

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

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.

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

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

I want to seize fate by the throat.

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.

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.

Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

I shall seize fate by the throat.