Quotes from Ludwig van Beethoven

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

Love, and love alone, is capable of giving you a happier life.

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

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

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!

There is no greater pleasure for me than to practice and exhibit my art.

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

I want to seize fate by the throat.

I shall hear in heaven.

I have always reckoned myself among the greatest admirers of Mozart, and shall do so till the day of my death.

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

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.

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

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

Music is a higher revelation than philosophy.

I want to seize fate by the throat.

Only the pure in heart can make a good soup.

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

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!

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

Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.

Es muss sein [It must be]!

What humiliation when someone who stood next to me heard a flute in the distance and I heard nothing, or when someone heard the shepherd boy singing and again I heard nothing. Such misfortune brought me to the edge of despair, and I might have brought an end to my life—only my art held me back.

Music is mediator between spiritual and sensual life.