203 Quotes by Ludwig van Beethoven

Anyone who tells a lie has not pure heart, and cannot make good soup.

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.

Fürst! Was Sie sind, sind Sie durch Zufall und Geburt, was ich bin, bin ich durch mich. Fürsten hat es und wird es noch Tausende geben, Beethoven gibt es nur einen.

In the world of art, as in the whole of creation, freedom and progress are the main objectives.

Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.

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.

Only the pure in heart can make a good soup.

This is the mark of a really admirable man: steadfastness in the face of trouble.

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.