A great poet is the most precious jewel of a nation.

Richard Wagner commenting on the music of Ludvig Van Beethoven: He was a Titan, wrestling with the Gods.

There is no loftier mission than to approach the Divinity nearer than other men, and to disseminate the divine rays among mankind.

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.

Let your deafness no longer be a secret - even in art.

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.

It seemed unthinkable for me to leave the world forever before I had produced all that I felt called upon to produce