Ludwig van Beethoven Quotes

German composer (1770-1827)

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Ludwig van Beethoven (baptized December 17 1770, died March 26 1827) was a German composer and pianist who lived predominantly in Vienna, Austria. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential of all composers.

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Alternative Names: L. van Beethoven • Ludvig van Beethoven • L. Bethovenas • Ludwik van Beethoven • Louis van Beethoven • L. v. Beethoven • L. van Betkhoven • Ludwig von Beethoven • Beethoven

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I must live by myself alone; but I know well that God is nearer to me than others in my art, so I will walk fearlessly with him.

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

it seemed unthinkable for me to leave the world forever before I had produced all that I felt called upon to produce.…

Music is the wine which inspires one to new generative processes, and I am Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for mankind and makes them spiritually drunken.

"The only sign of "superiority" I acknowledge in Man is goodness."

I joyfully hasten to meet death. If it come before I have had opportunity to develop all my artistic faculties, it will come, my hard fate notwithstanding, too soon, and I should probably wish it later - yet even then I shall be happy, for will it not deliver me from a state of endless suffering?

I cannot bring myself to write for the flute, as this instrument is too limited and imperfect.

"was schwer ist, ist auch schön, gut, groß etc, jeder Mensch sieht also ein, daß dieses das fetteste Lob ist, was man geben kann, denn das schwere macht schwizen (sic)"

"what is difficult is also beautiful, good, great, etc, therefore every person understands that this is the greatest praise that one can give, because the difficult makes one sweat"

O you men who think or say that I am malevolent, stubborn or misanthropic, how greatly do you wrong me, you do not know the secret causes of my seeming. I sometimes ran counter to it yielding to my inclination for society, but what a humiliation when one stood beside me and heard a flute in the distance and I heard nothing, or someone heard the shepherd singing and again I heard nothing, such incidents brought me to the verge of despair, but little more and I would have put an end to my life - only art it was that withheld me, ah it seemed impossible to leave the world until I had produced all that I felt called upon me to produce, and so I endured this wretched existence.

schon im Bette drängen sich die Ideen zu dir meine Unsterbliche Geliebte, hier und da freudig, dann wieder traurig. Vom Schicksaale abwartend, ob es unß erhört...

There ought to be an artistic depot where the artist need only hand in his artwork in order to receive what he asks for. As things are, one must be half a business man, and how can one understand - good heavens! - that's what I really call troublesome.

Music from my fourth year began to be the first of my youthful occupations. Thus early acquainted with the gracious muse who tuned my soul to pure harmonies, I became fond of her, and, as it often seemed to me, she of me.

"Ever thine.
Ever mine.
Ever ours." — LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN, the Immortal Beloved Letters

Whoever has created An abiding friendship, Or has won A true and loving wife, All who can call at least one soul theirs, Join in our song of praise; But any who cannot must creep tearfully Away from our circle.

Cheer up - remain my true, my only treasure, my all as I am yours. The gods must send us the rest, what for us must and shall be -