Quotes from Ludwig van Beethoven

Music, verily, is the mediator between intellectual and sensuous life... the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.

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

Musical and spiritual attainment is the destination we all seek.

Never shall I forget the time I spent with you. Please continue to be my friend, as you will always find me yours.

Never shall I forget the times I spent with you continue to be my friend, as you will always find me yours.

Recommend to your children virtue; that alone can make them happy, not gold.

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.

Never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved.

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.

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

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

The day-to-day exhausted me!

Even in poverty I lived like a king for I tell you that nobility is the thing that makes a king

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

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

Must it be? It must be.

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.

I like your opera - I think I will set it to music

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

Not "brook" [in German: Bach], but "sea" should he [Johann Sebastian Bach] be called because of his infinite, inexhaustible richness in tone combinations and harmonies. (Nicht Bach! Meer sollte er heissen: wegen seines unendlichen, unerschoepflichen Reichtums an Tonkombinationen und Harmonien.)

The barriers are not erected which can say to [aspiring] talents and industry, "Thus far and no farther.

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.

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

World, do you know your creator? Seek him in the heavens Above the stars must He dwell.