Ludwig van Beethoven

It is the artist's mission to penetrate to the heart of things.

I love a tree more than a man.

I have never been able to endure society.

O, you men who think or say that I am malevolent, stubborn, or misanthropic, how greatly do you wrong me.

My misfortune is double because I am misunderstood.

The day will come when mankind will recognize me.

I shall hear in heaven.

I am not a man of words; I am a man of music.

The condition of the people's heart is the measure of the condition of the nation.

I despise the world because it does not understand that music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.

It is a fact that I have always placed my personal freedom before everything else.

I like to compose, but I hate to write it out.

Let us have a moment of silence for the poor, who cannot afford to buy my music.

I shall live in my work.

No man can be a composer who has not heard all the works of the great masters.

I had to become a composer, because I had nothing else to do.

I am not afraid of anything, except for bad music.

I always have a new idea, a new melody, a new harmony in my head.

My principal purpose is to serve humanity.

I live only in my music.