There are and always will be thousands of princes, but there is only one Beethoven!

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.

Then let us all do what is right, strive with all our might toward the unattainable, develop as fully as we can the gifts God has given us, and never stop learning

The barriers are not erected which can say to aspiring talents and industry, 'Thus far and no farther.'

I know of no more sacred duty than to rear and educate a child.

I carry my thoughts about me for a long time, often a very long time, before I write them down; meanwhile my memory is so faithful that I am sure never to forget, not even in years, a theme that has once occurred to me.

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