Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the classical and romantic eras in classical music, he remains one of the most recognized and influential musicians of this period, and is considered to be one of the greatest composers of all time. Inspirational Ludwig van Beethoven quotes will challenge the way you think, and make your life worth living.
If you’re searching for life quotes and sayings that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of positive quotes by musicians.
Most Famous Ludwig van Beethoven Quotes
Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. – Ludwig van Beethoven
A great poet is the most precious jewel of a nation. – Ludwig van Beethoven
The vibrations on the air are the breath of God speaking to man’s soul. Music is the language of God. We musicians are as close to God as man can be. We hear his voice, we read his lips, we give birth to the children of God, who sing his praise. That’s what musicians are. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Anyone who tells a lie has not a pure heart and cannot make a good soup. – Ludwig van Beethoven
I shall seize fate by the throat; it shall certainly never wholly overcome me. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Music is indeed the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life. – Ludwig van Beethoven
I wish you music to help with the burdens of life, and to help you release your happiness to others. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Music should strike fire from the heart of man and bring tears from the eyes of woman. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind, but which mankind cannot comprehend. – Ludwig van Beethoven
To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Never forget the days I spent with you. Continue to be my friend, as you will always find me yours. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Oh, how beautiful it is to be alive – would that I could live a thousand times – Ludwig van Beethoven
In praise of Thy goodness I must confess that Thou didst try with all Thy means to draw me to Thee. Sometimes it pleased Thee to let me feel the heavy hand of Thy displeasure and to humiliate my proud heart by manifold castigations. Sickness and misfortune didst Thou send upon me to turn my thoughts to my errantries. -One thing, only, O Father, do I ask: cease not to labor for my betterment. In whatsoever manner it be, let me turn to Thee and become fruitful in good works. – Ludwig van Beethoven
He that divines the secret of my music is freed from the unhappiness that haunts the whole world of men. – Ludwig van Beethoven
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 had felt called upon to produce. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Music comes to me more readily than words.– Ludwig van Beethoven
Mistakes – mistakes – you yourself are a unique mistake! – Ludwig van Beethoven
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
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
Art! Who comprehends her? With whom can one consult concerning this great goddess? – Ludwig van Beethoven
If I contemplate myself as part of the Universe: what am I? – Ludwig van Beethoven
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
The foundation of friendship demands the greatest likeness of human souls and hearts. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Only art and science make us suspect the existence of life to a higher level, and maybe also instill hope thereof. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Music is the mediator between the life of the senses and the life of the spirit. – Ludwig van Beethoven
There are and always will be thousands of princes, but there is only one Beethoven! – Ludwig van Beethoven
Good Morning, on July 7 My thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved I can only live wholly with you or not at all- Be calm my life, my all. Only by calm consideration of our existence can we achieve our purpose to live together. Oh, continue to love me, never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved. Ever Thine Ever Mine Ever Yours – Ludwig van Beethoven
I would rather write 10,000 notes than a single letter of the alphabet. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Oh, 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 cause which makes me seem that way to you. Oh, how harshly was I flung back by the doubly sad experience of my bad hearing. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Inspirational Ludwig van Beethoven Quotes
Artists who have won fame are often embarrassed by it; thus, their first works are often their best. – Ludwig van Beethoven
The amount of money one needs is terrifying. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Love demands all and has a right to all. – Ludwig van Beethoven
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 sad not to have reached that point to which his better genius only appears as a distant, guiding sun. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Even in poverty I lived like a king for I tell you that nobility is the thing that makes a king – Ludwig van Beethoven
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
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
No friend have 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
Everything should be at once surprising and inevitable. – Ludwig van Beethoven
The guitar is an orchestra in itself. – Ludwig van Beethoven
In the world of art, as in the whole of creation, freedom and progress are the main objectives. – Ludwig van Beethoven
In whatsoever manner it be, let me turn to God and become fruitful in good works. Nothing higher exists than to approach God more than other people and from that to extend His glory among humanity. I will place all my confidence in your eternal goodness, O God! My soul shall rejoice in Thee, immutable Being. Be my rock, my light, forever my trust. – Ludwig van Beethoven
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
I know of no more sacred duty than to rear and educate a child. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Only the pure in heart can make a good soup. – Ludwig van Beethoven
My misfortune is doubly painful to me because it will result in my being misunderstood. For me there can be no recreation in the company of others, no intelligent conversation, no exchange of information with peers; only the most pressing needs can make me venture into society. I am obliged to live like an outcast. – Ludwig van Beethoven
I shall hear in heaven. – Ludwig van Beethoven
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
I love a tree more than a man. – Ludwig van Beethoven
The barriers are not erected which can say to aspiring talents and industry, ‘Thus far and no farther.’ – Ludwig van Beethoven
How glad I am to be able to roam in the wood and thicket, among trees and flowers and rocks … in the country, every tree seems to speak to me, saying, Holy! Holy, in the woods, there is enchantment which expresses all things. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Music is like a dream. One that I cannot hear. – Ludwig van Beethoven
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
It is the power of music to carry one directly into the mental state of the composer. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven Quotes About Life, Passion and Music
What I have in my heart and soul – must find a way out. That’s the reason for music. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Don’t only practice your art but force your way into its secrets; art deserves that, for it and knowledge can raise man to the Divine. – Ludwig van Beethoven
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
To play without passion is inexcusable! – Ludwig van Beethoven
Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents. – Ludwig van Beethoven
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
An artist is someone who has learned to trust in himself. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Music can change the world. – Ludwig van Beethoven
The guitar is a miniature orchestra in itself. – Ludwig van Beethoven
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
Hide your secret even from the closest friend; learn to be silent. – Ludwig van Beethoven
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
I haven’t a single friend; I must live alone. But well I know that God is nearer to me than to the others of my art; I associate with Him without fear, I have always recognized and understood Him, and I have no fear for my music,-it can meet no evil fate. Those who understand it must become free from all the miseries that the others drag with them. – Ludwig van Beethoven
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
Nothing is more intolerable than to have to admit to yourself your own errors. – Ludwig van Beethoven
What will be the judgment a century hence concerning the lorded works of our favorite composers today? Inasmuch as nearly everything is subject to the changes of time, and – more’s the pity- the fashions of time, only that which is good and true will endure like a rock and no wanton hand will ever venture to defile it. Then, let every man do that which is right, strive with all his might towards the goal which can never be obtained, develop to the last breath the gifts with which the gracious Creator has endowed him, and never cease to learn. For life is short, art eternal. – Ludwig van Beethoven
You ask me where I get my ideas. That I cannot tell you with certainty. They come unsummoned, directly, indirectly – I could seize them with my hands – out in the open air, in the woods, while walking, in the silence of the nights, at dawn, excited by moods which are translated by the poet into words, by me into tones that sound and roar and storm about me till I have set them down in notes. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Do you think I give a damn about you and your pathetic violin? – Ludwig van Beethoven
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… I multiply it by modulations, and at last I triumph in the first theme. There is the whole symphony. – Ludwig van Beethoven
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
This is the mark of a really admirable man: steadfastness in the face of trouble. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Off with you! 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
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
Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth. – Ludwig van Beethoven
I have always reckoned myself among the greatest admirers of Mozart and shall do so till the day of my death. – Ludwig van Beethoven
I love a tree more than a man. – Ludwig van Beethoven
There ought to be only one large art warehouse in the world, to which the artist could carry his artworks and from which he could carry away whatever he needed. As it is one must be half a tradesman. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Men are not only together when they are with each other; even the distant and the dead live with us. – Ludwig van Beethoven
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
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.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
But what a humiliation for me when someone standing next to me heard a flute in the distance and I heard nothing, or someone standing next to me heard a shepherd singing and again I heard nothing. Such incidents drove me almost to despair; a little more of that and I would have ended my life – it was only my art that held me back. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Yet it was impossible for me to say to people, ‘Speak louder, shout, for I am deaf.’ Ah, how could I possibly admit an infirmity in the one sense which ought to be more perfect in me than others, a sense which I once possessed in the highest perfection, a perfection such as few in my profession enjoy or ever have enjoyed. – Ludwig van Beethoven
I carry my thoughts about with me for a long time… before writing them down… once I have grasped a theme. I shall not forget it even years later. I change many things, discard others, and try again and again until I am satisfied; then, in my head… [the work] rises, it grows, I hear and see the image n front of me from every angle… and only the labor of writing it down remains… I turn my ideas into tones that resound, roar, and rage until at last they stand before me in the form of notes. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Whoever tells a lie is not pure of heart, and such a person cannot cook a clean soup. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Only the flint of a man’s mind can strike fire in music. – Ludwig van Beethoven
I shall seize fate by the throat. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Love demands all, and has a right to all. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Oh, continue to love me – never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved. ever thine ever mine ever ours – Ludwig van Beethoven
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
Artists are fiery, they do not weep! – Ludwig van Beethoven
Rossini would have been a great composer if his teacher had spanked him enough on his backside. – Ludwig van Beethoven
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 to now? – Ludwig van Beethoven
Hide your secret even from the closest friend; learn to be silent. – Ludwig van Beethoven
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
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
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
Strange, I feel as if up to now I had written no more than a few notes. – Ludwig van Beethoven
I liked your opera. I think I will set it to music. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Art demands of us that we shall not stand still. – Ludwig van Beethoven
It is my belief one should not belittle the artist; while, however glorious his fame may seem, his time on Mount Olympus as an honorable guest of Zeus is short. It’s a pity, but all too eager will the common folk drag him from this etherial heights to the low and trodden earth. – Ludwig van Beethoven
There is no loftier mission than to approach the Godhead more nearly than other mortals, and by means of that contact to spread the rays of the Godhead through the human race. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Let your deafness no longer be a secret – even in art. – Ludwig van Beethoven
After Rossini dies, who will be there to promote his music? – Ludwig van Beethoven
I know no other sign of superiority than Goodness. – Ludwig van Beethoven
He who understand my music will remain free from the miseries that the other men are dragging with them. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Don’t regard yourself as too divine to improve, occasionally, your own works. – Ludwig van Beethoven
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
This is not a brook [Bach meansbrookin German], it’s an ocean. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Applaud my friends, the comedy is over… [on his death bed] – Ludwig van Beethoven
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
There is no greater pleasure for me than to practice and exhibit my art. – Ludwig van Beethoven
To me the highest thing, after God, is my honor. – Ludwig van Beethoven
I can do nothing but think of you… What have you done to me? Can’t you remove the spell you have cast over me? – Ludwig van Beethoven
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
Fate gave to man the courage of endurance. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Figured Bass (Harmony) and Religion are self-contained things, one should not argue these. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Love, and love alone, is capable of giving you a happier life. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Händel is the greatest and ablest of all composers; from him I can still learn. – Ludwig van Beethoven
One must not hold one’s self so divine as to be unwilling occasionally to make improvements in one’s creations. – Ludwig van Beethoven
Wherever you are, I am there also. – Ludwig van Beethoven
We all make mistakes, but everyone makes different mistakes – Ludwig van Beethoven
I can live only wholly with you or not at all. – Ludwig van Beethoven
My heart is full of many things there are moments when I feel that speech is nothing after all. – Ludwig van Beethoven
