I will seize fate by the throat; it shall certainly never wholly overcome me.

Don't regard yourself as too divine to improve, occasionally, your own works.

Applaud my friends, the comedy is over... [on his death bed]

After Rossini dies, who will be there to promote his music?

What will be the judgment a century hence concerning the lorded works of our favorite composers today? Inasmuch as nearly everything is subject to the changes of time, and - more's the pity- the fashions of time, only that which is good and true will endure like a rock and no wanton hand will ever venture to defile it. Then, let every man do that which is right, strive with all his might towards the goal which can never be obtained, develop to the last breath the gifts with which the gracious Creator has endowed him, and never cease to learn. For life is short, art eternal.

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.

Nothing is more intolerable than to have to admit to yourself your own errors.