Fate gave to man the courage of endurance.
I love a tree more than a man.
Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes.
A great poet is the most precious jewel of a nation.
There are and always will be thousands of princes, but there is only one Beethoven!
Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman.
I want to seize fate by the throat.
Music is the electric soil in which the spirit thinks, lives and invents. All that’s electrical stimulates the mind to flowing surging musical creation. I am electrical by nature.
The amount of money one needs is terrifying...
There is no loftier mission than to approach the Divinity nearer than other men, and to disseminate the divine rays among mankind.
There is no greater pleasure for me than to practice and exhibit my art.
You’re a happy fellow, for you’ll give happiness and joy to many other people. There is nothing better or greater than that.
I alter some things, eliminate and try again until I am satisfied. Then begins the mental working out of this material in its breadth, its narrowness, its height and depth.
Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth.
Let your deafness no longer be a secret – even in art.
Wherever you are, I am there also.
When I open my eyes I must sigh, for what I see is contrary to my religion, and I must despise the world which does not know that music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.
What I have in my heart and soul – must find a way out. That’s the reason for music.
Only the flint of a man’s mind can strike fire in music.
Recommend virtue to your children, that alone – not wealth – can give happiness. It upholds in adversity and the thought of it and my art prevents me from putting an end to my life.