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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

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Ludwig van Beethoven
Age: 56 †
Born: 1770
Born: December 16
Died: 1827
Died: March 26
Composer
Conductor
Improviser
Music Pedagogue
Musician
Organist
Pianist
Violinist
Virtuoso
Bonn
Germany
Beethoven
L. van Beethoven
Ludvig van Beethoven
Ludwig Van Beethoven
L. Bethovenas
Ludwik van Beethoven
Louis van Beethoven
L. v. Beethoven
L. van Betkhoven
Desire
Submit
Art
Favor
True
Favors
Like
Desires
World
Selfish
King
Perverse
Kings
Mold
Return
Flattery

More quotes by Ludwig van Beethoven

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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
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There is no greater pleasure for me than to practice and exhibit my art.
Ludwig van Beethoven
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Rossini would have been a great composer if his teacher had spanked him enough on his backside.
Ludwig van Beethoven
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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
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Strange, I feel as if up to now I had written no more than a few notes.
Ludwig van Beethoven
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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
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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
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I change many things, discard others, and try again and again until I am satisfied then, in my head, I being to elaborate the work in its breadth, its narrowness, its height, its depth...I hear and see the image in front of me from every angle as if it had been cast and only the labour of writing it down remains.
Ludwig van Beethoven
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Music is like a dream. One that I cannot hear.
Ludwig van Beethoven
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I have always reckoned myself among the greatest admirers of Mozart, and shall do so till the day of my death.
Ludwig van Beethoven
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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
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Men are not only together when they are with each other even the distant and the dead live with us.
Ludwig van Beethoven
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To play without passion is inexcusable!
Ludwig van Beethoven
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I shall hear in heaven.
Ludwig van Beethoven
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Recommend to your children to be virtuous, only the virtue can bring us happiness, not the money.
Ludwig van Beethoven
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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
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Oh continue to love me, never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved. Ever thine. Ever mine. Ever ours.
Ludwig van Beethoven
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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
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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
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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