"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."

"Oh you people 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 so to you. From childhood on, my heart …"

"I will show the world that I am a great artist."

"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."

"Ah, it seemed to me impossible to leave the world until I had produced all that I felt called upon to produce."