Whoever tells a lie is not pure of heart, and such a person can not cook a clean soup.

Strange, I feel as if up to now I had written no more than a few notes.

Life would be flat without music. It is the background to all I do. It speaks to the heart in its own special way like nothing else.

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.

In the country It seems as if every tree Said to me 'Holy! Holy!' Who can ever express The ecstasy of the woods! Almighty One, In the woods I am blessed. Happy every one in the woods. Every tree speaks through Thee. O God! What glory in the woodland.

Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth.

To me the highest thing, after God, is my honor.