Ludwig van Beethoven

Art! Who comprehends her? With whom can one consult concerning this great goddess?

Plaudite, amici, comedia finita est. (Applaud, my friends, the comedy is over.)

I would, perhaps, rather come to you and your people, than to many rich folk who display inward poverty.

May God continue to give you the strength to build your temple of Isis, and may the pure fire there devour all your afflictions so that you may awake like a new phoenix.

Music is like a dream. One that I cannot hear.

Oh continue to love me–never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved. Ever thine. Ever mine. Ever ours.

The only way to make a joke is to be serious.

Damn your eyes! You are an ass!

A musician is a musician because he lives the music. Not just plays it. But lives it. And if he doesn't live it, he is nothing.

I wish you health, and hope that you will soon be able to do something for art, so that I may be able to see you again. Farewell, I wish you well.

What is good must be good already in the first draft.

My mind is so full of music that I could write all day and all night. But I cannot write it down fast enough.

Don't only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets, for it and knowledge can elevate man to the divine.

My compositions are not easily understood by the public.

I carry my thoughts about with me for a long time, often a very long time, before I write them down.

There are and will be thousands of princes; there is only one Beethoven.

I am not satisfied with what I have done; I want to do more.

It is not the business of the artist to be happy.

Art demands of us that we shall not stand still.

I will show them that I am not to be trifled with.