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Ludwig van Beethoven
20 quotes
“I want to seize fate by the throat.”
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) first seen 1801 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to F.G. Wegeler, 16 November, 1801.
“There ought to be but one large art warehouse in the world, to which the artist could carry his art-works, and from which he could carry away whatever he needed. As it is, one must be half a tradesman.”
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) first seen 1801 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Conversations (January 1801)
“Music is like a dream. One that I cannot hear.”
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) first seen 1804 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Conversations (January 1804)
“Nur das Reine im Herzen kann eine gute Suppe machen.”
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) said by 1827 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Musik höhere Offenbarung ist als alle Weisheit und Philosophie.”
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) first seen 1810 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As reported by Bettina von Arnim in a letter to Goethe, 28 May 1810.
“Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.”
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) first seen 1810 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As reported by Elizabeth Brentano (Bettina) in a letter to Goethe, 27 May 1810.
“Music is indeed the mediator between the spiritual and sensual life.”
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) first seen 1810 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Attributed to Beethoven by Bettina von Arnim in a letter to Goethe (28 May 1810); Goethe's Correspondence with a Child (1837)
“Art! Who comprehends her? With whom can one consult concerning this great goddess?”
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) first seen 1810 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Bettina von Arnim (11 August 1810)
“Fahre fort, übe nicht allein die Kunst, sondern dringe auch in ihr Inneres; sie verdient es, denn nur die Kunst und die Wissenschaft erhöhen den Menschen bis zur Gottheit.”
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) first seen 1812 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Emilie, July 17, 1812.
“I met [Meyerbeer] at the performance of my "Battle." Most of the composers then in Vienna were kind enough to undertake something or other in my orchestra, and the young man played the big drum. Ha! ha! ha! (a peal of laughter). I had reason not to be very well satisfied with him. He was always behindhand, and I had to give it him roundly. (New peal of laughter.) He must have felt mortified by my observations; but there is no reliance to be placed in him; he has not the courage to raise his arm at the proper moment.”
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) first seen 1814 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 10th October, 1814
“One clashes with stupidity of all kinds. And then how much money must be spent in advance! The way in which artists are treated is really scandalous. I am compelled to give a third of my receipts to the manager of the theatre and a fifth to the hospitals. Devil take them! As long as these abuses exist, I shall always ask whether music is or is not an art that may be freely exercised. Believe me, there is nothing to be done for artists in times like these.”
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) first seen 1814 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 24th November, 1814
“It is a recognised fact that the greatest composers were likewise the greatest virtuosos; but did they play like the pianists of the present day, who run up and down the keyboard with passages studied beforehand? Pooh! pooh! pooh! Don't tell me! A real virtuoso, when extemporising, plays pieces which hold together and possess a form. Were the ideas in them fixed instantly on paper, they would be taken for pieces written at leisure. That is what I call playing the piano; everything else is a bad joke.”
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) first seen 1814 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 24th November, 1814
“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.”
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) first seen 1820 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Conversations (March 1820)
“You will hear nothing of me here ... Fidelio? They cannot give it, nor do they want to listen to it. The symphonies? They have no time for them. My concertos? Everyone grinds out only the stuff he himself has made. The solo pieces? They went out of fashion long ago, and here fashion is everything. At the most, Schuppanzigh occasionally digs up a quartet.”
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) first seen 1822 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Thayer 1967b, p. 801. (1822)
“The day-to-day exhausted me!”
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) first seen 1823 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Karl von Baden, August 23, 1823
“Ach du erbärmlicher Schuft, was ich scheiße ist besser, als was du je gedacht.”
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) first seen 1825 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Written in the margin of Gottfried Weber's negative review of Wellington's Victory in Beethoven's copy of Cäcilia (August 1825)
“Muß es sein? Es muß sein.”
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) first seen 1826 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Epigraph to string quartet in F Major, Opus 135 (October 1826)
“Plaudite, amici, comedia finita est. (Applaud, my friends, the comedy is over.)”
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) first seen 1827 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Said on his deathbed, 1827 [citation needed]
“Ich werde im Himmel hören! (I will hear in heaven!)”
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) first seen 1827 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Said on his deathbed, 1827, as cited from the book Last Words.
“...thus do I take my farewell of thee — and indeed sadly — yes that beloved hope — which I brought with me when I came here to be cured at least in a degree — I must wholly abandon, as the leaves of autumn fall and are withered so hope has been blighted, almost as I came — I go away — even the high courage — which often inspired me in the beautiful days of summer — has disappeared — O Providence — grant me at least but one day of pure joy — it is so long since real joy echoed in my heart — O when — O when, O Divine One — shall I find it again in the temple of nature and of men — Never? no — O that would be too hard.”
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) first seen 1802 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Heiligenstadt Testament, 10 October 1802