102 Best Ludwig van Beethoven Quotes

Here we’ve compiled a list of 102 best quotes by Ludwig van Beethoven about life, music, love, passion, God, and Mozart.

Beethoven was a German composer and pianist from the Classical era. His works were hits, and he is still remembered today as one of Western music history’s legends. We can divide his life into different parts based on what happened during different phases of his life.

Before 1802 was the time when he struggled for development in his career. From 1802 to the late 1800s when worked dominantly with Haydn and Mozart, who introduced him to classical style composition while helping him in developing some of his own pieces, including “Fur Elise,” which became popular around this time. 

And finally, 3/4 years before death, when he was becoming deaf, came a third phase where the music took on an altogether different quality, most notably seen in Moonlight Sonata or Fur Elisa.

Famous Quotes By Ludwig van Beethoven

So, let’s discuss these best and famous 102 by Ludwig van Beethoven that you’ll definitely love to explore.

1. “I am resolved to rise superior to every obstacle. With whom need I be afraid of measuring my strength? I will take fate by the throat. It shall not overcome me. O how beautiful it is to be alive – would that I could live a thousand times!” – Ludwig van Beethoven
2. “Handel, to him I bow the knee.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
3. “Everything should be at once surprising and inevitable.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
4. “Mistakes – mistakes – you yourself are a unique mistake!” – Ludwig van Beethoven
5. “We all make mistakes, but everyone makes different mistakes.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
6. “A great poet is the most precious jewel of a nation.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
7. “Do you think I give a damn about you and your pathetic violin?” – Ludwig van Beethoven
8. “One must not hold one’s self so divine as to be unwilling occasionally to make improvements in one’s creations.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
9. “Recommend to your children’s virtues, that alone can make them happy, not gold.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
10. “I know of no more sacred duty than to rear and educate a child.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
11. “Fate gave to man the courage of endurance.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
12. “The amount of money one needs is terrifying…” – Ludwig van Beethoven
13. “What is to reach the heart must come from above; if it does not come from thence, it will be nothing but notes, body without spirit.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
14.  “Anyone who tells a lie has not a pure heart and cannot make a good soup.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
15.  “You’re a happy fellow, for you’ll give happiness and joy to many other people. There is nothing better or greater than that.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
16. “From the glow of enthusiasm, I let the melody escape. I pursue it. Breathless, I catch up with it. It flies again; it disappears; it plunges into a chaos of diverse emotions. I catch it again; I seize it; I embrace it with delight.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
17. “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.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
18. “I will take fate by the throat; it will never bend me completely to its will.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
19. “Rossini would have been a great composer if his teacher had spanked him enough on his backside.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
20. “Don’t regard yourself as too divine to improve, occasionally, your own works.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
21. “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.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
22. “The foundation of friendship demands the greatest likeness of human souls and hearts.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
23. “Wherever you are, I am there also.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
24. “Nothing is more intolerable than to have to admit to yourself your own errors.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
25. “Art always demands of us something new.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
26. “This is the mark of a really admirable man: steadfastness in the face of trouble.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
27. “There ought to be only 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
28. “Hide your secret even from the closest friend; learn to be silent…” – Ludwig van Beethoven
29. “She was such a good loving mother, my best friend. Oh, who was happier than I when I could still say the dear name “Mother,” and it was heard, and whom can I say it too now?” – Ludwig van Beethoven
30. “Of all my children, this is the one that cost me the worst birth-pangs and brought me the most sorrow; and for that reason, it is the one most dear to me.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
31. “You will not find a treatise that is too learned for me; without laying claim to any genuine learning, I yet accustomed myself from childhood onwards to grasp the spirit of the best and wisest in every age. Shame on the artist who does not consider it his duty to achieve at least so much.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
32. “Artists who have won fame are often embarrassed by it; thus, their first works are often their best.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
33. “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?” – Ludwig van Beethoven
34.  “The true artist has no pride. He sees, unfortunately, that art has no limits; he has a vague awareness of how far he is from reaching his goal; and while others may perhaps admire him, he laments the fact that he has not yet reached the point whither his better genius only lights the way for him like a distant sun.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
35. “The true artist is not proud; he, unfortunately, sees that art has no limits; he feels darkly how far he is from the goal; and though he may be admired by others, he is said not to have reached that point to which his better genius only appears as a distant, guiding sun. I would, perhaps, rather come to you and your people than too many rich folks who display inward poverty.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
36. “Thousands of people cultivate music, but few have the revelation of this great art.” – Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven on Music

37. “What I have in my heart and soul – must find a way out. That’s the reason for music.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
38. “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.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
39. “I would rather write 10,000 notes than a single letter of the alphabet.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
40. “Only the flint of a man’s mind can strike fire in music.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
41. “He who understand my music will remain free from the miseries that the other men are dragging with them.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
42.  “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
43. “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.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
44. “He that divines the secret of my music is freed from the unhappiness that haunts the whole world of men.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
45. “I liked your opera. I think I will set it to music.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
46. “I despise a world which does not feel that music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
47. “Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
48. “Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.”
49. “Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
50. “The guitar is an orchestra in itself.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
51. “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.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
52. “Music is like a dream. One that I cannot hear.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
53. “It is the power of music to carry one directly into the mental state of the composer.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
54. “I only live in my music, and I have scarcely begun one thing when I start on another. As I am now working, I am often engaged on three or four things at the same time.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
55. “Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
56. “Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life. Although the spirit be not master of that which it creates through music, yet it is blessed in this creation, which, like every creation of art, is mightier than the artist.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
57. “To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
58. “Richard Wagner commenting on the music of Ludwig Van Beethoven: He was a Titan, wrestling with the Gods.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
59. “I will seize fate by the throat; it shall certainly never wholly overcome me.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
60. “Music can change the world.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
61. Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
62. “I shall hear in heaven.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
63. “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.” – Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven Quotes About Life

64. “I know no other sign of superiority than Goodness.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
65. “In the world of art, as in the whole of creation, freedom and progress are the main objectives.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
66. “Only art and science make us suspect the existence of life to a higher level, and maybe also instill hope thereof.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
67. “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.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
68. “Oh, how beautiful it is to be alive – would that I could live a thousand times.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
69. “Even in poverty I lived like a king for I tell you that nobility is the thing that makes a king.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
70. “There is no loftier mission than to approach the Divinity nearer than other men, and to disseminate the divine rays among mankind.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
71. “We mortals with immortal minds are only born for sufferings and joys, and one could almost say that the most excellent receive joy through sufferings.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
72. “Never forget the days I spent with you. Continue to be my friend, as you will always find me yours.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
73. “Recommend to your children to be virtuous, only the virtue can bring us happiness, not the money.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
74. “Men are not only together when they are with each other; even the distant and the dead live with us.” – Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven Quotes About Love

75. “Oh, continue to love me – never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved. ever thin ever mine ever ours.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
76. “I love a tree more than a man.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
77. “Love, and love alone, is capable of giving you a happier life.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
78. “To do good whenever one can, to love liberty above all else, never to deny the truth, even though it be before the throne.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
79. “Love demands all, and has a right to all.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
80. “It is my wish that you may have at better and freer life than I have had. Recommend virtue to your children; it alone, not money, can make them happy. I speak from experience; this was what upheld me in time of misery.” – Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven Quotes About Passion

81. “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.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
82. “I don’t want to know anything about your system of ethics. Strength is the morality of the man who stands out from the rest, and it is mine.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
83. “Strange, I feel as if up to now I had written no more than a few notes.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
84. “I want to seize fate by the throat.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
85. “An artist is someone who has learned to trust in himself.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
86. “It seemed unthinkable for me to leave the world forever before I had produced all that I felt called upon to produce.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
87. “Art demands of us that we shall not stand still.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
88. “Artists are fiery; they do not weep!” – Ludwig van Beethoven
89. “The barriers are not erected which can say to aspiring talents and industry, ‘Thus far and no farther.’” – Ludwig van Beethoven
90. “I carry my thoughts about with me for a long time, often for a very long time, before writing them down.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
91. “If I contemplate myself as part of the Universe: what am I?” – Ludwig van Beethoven
92. “I can live only wholly with you or not at all.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
93. “My heart is full of many things there are moments when I feel that speech is nothing after all.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
94. “Art! Who comprehends her? With whom can one consult concerning this great goddess?” – Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven Quotes About God

95. “Only art and science can raise men to the level of God.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
96. “No friend has I. 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.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
97.  “To me, the highest thing, after God, is my honor.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
98.  “Then let us all do what is right, strive with all our might toward the unattainable, develop as fully as we can the gifts God has given us, and never stop learning.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
99. “Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
100. “In the country, It seems as if every tree said to me, ‘Holy! Holy!’ Who can ever express the ecstasy of the woods! Almighty One, In the woods, I am blessed. Happy everyone in the woods. Every tree speaks through Thee. O, God! What glory in the woodland?” – Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven Quotes About Mozart

101. “I have always reckoned myself among the greatest admirers of Mozart, and shall do so till the day of my death.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
102.  “All my life I have regarded myself as one of Mozart’s greatest admirers, and I will remain one until my last breath.” – Ludwig van Beethoven

What were Ludwig van Beethoven’s last words?

The great German composer Ludwig van Beethoven died on 26 March 1827. His last words, “Pity, pity—too late!” were said in response to a plea for forgiveness from his secretary Karl Holz and sister-in-law Johanna van Beethoven. However, there is still controversy about the authenticity of these final moments as censorship during that time meant many details surrounding this moment could not be verified correctly today.

What were Mozart’s last words?

With less certainty, it is considered that the last words of the legendary music composer were, “The taste of death is upon my lips…I feel something that is not of this earth.”

Who killed Mozart?

Mozart was a great composer who taught a number of gems in his industry. He died from poisoning, but no one knew why he had been poisoned at that time. Later in 1823, when Salieri was suffering from illness and unsure mind about what was going on around him, he admitted having killed Mozart.

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