quotes.txt

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.
Only the pure in heart can make a good soup. 
Only Pure Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman. 
Music comes to me more readily than words.
I must confess that I lead a miserable life. For almost two years, I have ceased to attend any social functions, just because I find it impossible to say to people, 'I am deaf.' If I had any other profession, I might be able to cope with my infirmity; but in my profession, it is a terrible handicap. 
I Am Impossible 
Nothing is more intolerable than to have to admit to yourself your own errors. 
Applaud my friends, the comedy is over.
Applaud What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven. 
To play without passion is inexcusable! 
Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth. 
Music is a higher revelation than philosophy.
Music is like a dream. One that I cannot hear.
Never forget the days I spent with you. Continue to be my friend, as you will always find me yours
I shall seize fate by the throat.
It seemed unthinkable for me to leave the world forever before I had produced all that I felt called upon to produce
Love demands all, and has a right to all.
A great poet is the most precious jewel of a nation.
Music is the mediator between the spiritual and sensual life
Even in poverty I lived like a king for I tell you that nobility is the thing that makes a king
Life would be flat without music. It is the background to all I do. It speaks to the heart in its own special way like nothing else.
An artist is someone who has learned to trust in himself.
I have never thought of writing for reputation and honor. What I have in my heart must come out; that is the reason why I compose.
Hide your secret even from the closest friend; learn to be silent.
Do you think I give a damn about your and your pathetic violin?
Everything will pass and the world will perish but the Ninth will remain
Beethoven always sounds to me like the upsetting of a bag of nails, with here and there also a dropped hammer
If a person sweeps streets for a living, he should sweep them as Beethoven composed music’
In Beethoven’s music] the dreamer will recognise his dreams, the sailor his storms, and the wolf his forests
True friendship can be based only on the union of similar ways of being
There is nothing more beautiful than distributing happiness to many people
Genius is composed of 2% talent and 98% persevering application
There is no real intelligence without goodness
I love a tree more than a man.
Beethoven tells you what it’s like to be Beethoven and Mozart tells you what it’s like to be human. Bach tells you what it’s like to be the universe.
Dissatisfied with many things, more susceptible than any other person and tormented by my deafness, I often find only suffering in the association with others.
I always have a picture in my mind when composing, and follow its lines.
Carried too far, all delineation in instrumental music loses in efficiency
"Many assert that every minor piece must end in the minor. Nego! On the contrary I find that in the soft scales the major third at the close has a glorious and uncommonly quieting effect. Joy follows sorrow, sunshine--rain. It affects me as if I were looking up to the silvery glistering of the evening star."
My dear boy, the startling effects which many credit to the natural genius of the composer, are often achieved with the greatest ease by the use and resolution of the diminished seventh chords.
I never write a work continuously, without interruption. I am always working on several at the same time, taking up one, then another.
I am not in the habit of rewriting my compositions. I never did it because I am profoundly convinced that every change of detail changes the character of the whole."
"It was not the fortuitous meeting of the chordal atoms that made the world; if order and beauty are reflected in the constitution of the universe, then there is a God."
"He who is above,--O, He is, and without Him there is nothing."
There is no loftier mission than to approach the Divinity nearer than other men, and to disseminate the divine rays among mankind."
"God is immaterial, and for this reason transcends every conception. Since He is invisible He can have no form. But from what we observe in His work we may conclude that He is eternal, omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent."
This is the mark of distinction of a truly admirable man: steadfastness in times of trouble."
Follow the advice of others only in the rarest cases."
Only the praise of one who has enjoyed praise can give pleasure.
The world must give one recognition,--it is not always unjust. I care nothing for it because I have a higher goal.
Force, which is a unit, will always prevail against the majority which is divided
Rigorists, and devotees of antiquity, relegate the perfect fourth to the list of dissonances. Tastes differ. To my ear it gives not the least offence combined with other tones
Truly, in Schubert there is a divine spark!
I have always counted myself amongst the greatest admirers of Mozart and shall remain so until my last breath"
Handel is the greatest composer who ever lived. I would uncover my head and kneel down at his tomb"
His name ought not to be Bach (brook), but ocean, because of his inexhaustible wealth of tonal combinations and harmonies
Had I not read somewhere that it is not pending man to part voluntarily from his life so long as there is a good deed which he can perform, I should long since have been no more, and by my own hand. O, how beautiful life is, but in my case it is poisoned.
You must not be a man like other men: not for yourself, only for others; for you there is no more happiness except in yourself, in your art.--O God, give me strength to overcome myself, nothing must hold me to this life."
Rossini would have been a great composer if his teacher had spanked him enough on his backside.
The guitar is an orchestra in itself.
Artists are fiery, they do not weep!
Artists who have won fame are often embarrassed by it; thus their first works are often their best.
I shall hear in heaven.