Great Throughts Treasury

"Correspondence, as you know, was never my forte; some of my best friends have not had a letter from me in years. I live only in my notes (compositions), and one is scarcely finished when another is begun. As I am working now I often compose three, even four, pieces simultaneously."

"Courage, so it be righteous, will gain all things."

"Dissatisfied with many things, more susceptible than any other person and tormented by my deafness, I often find only suffering in the association with others."

"Divinity, thou lookest into my heart, thou knowest it, thou knowest that love for mankind and a desire to do good have their abode there. O ye men, when one day ye read this think that ye have wronged me, and may the unfortunate console himself with the thought that he has found one of his kind who, despite all the obstacles which nature put in his path, yet did all in his power to be accepted in the ranks of worthy artists and men!"

"'Die Zauberflote' will always remain Mozart's greatest work, for in it he for the first time showed himself to be a German musician. 'Don Juan' still has the complete Italian cut; besides our sacred art ought never permit itself to be degraded to the level of a foil for so scandalous a subject."

"Cramer, Cramer! We shall never be able to compose anything like that!"

"Do not let all men see the contempt which they deserve; we do not know when we may need them."

"Do not let that trouble Your Excellency; perhaps the greetings are intended for me."

"Do not tear the laurel wreaths from the heads of Handel, Haydn and Mozart; they belong to them,?not yet to me."

"Do not wholly forget me when I am dead."

"Does he believe that I think of a wretched fiddle when the spirit speaks to me?"

"Don?t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets, for it and knowledge can raise men to the divine."

"Don't practice your art, but force your way into its secrets, for it and knowledge raise men to the Divine."

"Even in poverty I lived like a king for I tell you that nobility is the thing that makes a king"

"Eternal Providence omnisciently directs the good and evil fortunes of mortal men."

"Drops of water wear away a stone in time, not by force but by continual falling. Only through tireless industry are the sciences achieved so that one can truthfully say: no day without its line,?nulla dies sine linea."

"Don't only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets; art deserves that, for it and knowledge can raise man to the Divine."

"'Euryanthe' is an accumulation of diminished seventh chords?all little backdoors!"

"Even when I am in bed my thoughts rush to you, my eternally beloved, now and then joyfully, then again sadly, waiting to know whether Fate will hear our prayer--To face life I must live altogether with you or never see you. Yes, I am resolved to be a wanderer abroad until I can fly to your arms and say that I have found my true home with you and enfolded in your arms can let my soul be wafted to the realm on blessed spirits--alas, unfortunately it must be so--You will become composed, the more so as you know that I am faithful to you; no other woman can ever possess my heart--never--never--Oh God, why must one be separated from her who is so dear. Yet my life in V[ienna] at present is a miserable life--Your love has made me both the happiest and the unhappiest of mortals--At my age I now need stability and regularity in my life--can this coexist with our relationship?--Angel, I have just heard that the post goes every day--and therefore I must close, so that you may receive the letter immediately--Be calm; for only by calmly considering our lives can we achieve our purpose to live together--Be calm--love me--Today--yesterday--what tearful longing for you--for you--you--my life--my all--all good wishes to you--Oh, do continue to love me--never misjudge your lover's most faithful heart. Ever yours, ever mine, ever ours. L."

"Famous artists always labor under an embarrassment;?therefore first works are the best, though they may have sprung out of dark ground."

"Even the most sacred friendship may harbor secrets, but you ought not to misinterpret the secret of a friend because you cannot guess it."

"Every day is lost in which we do not learn something useful. Man has no nobler or more valuable possession than time; therefore never put off till tomorrow what you can do today."

"Few as are the claims which I make upon such things I shall still accept the dedication of your beautiful work with pleasure. You ask, however, that I also play the part of a critic, without thinking that I must myself submit to criticism! With Voltaire I believe that 'a few fly-bites cannot stop a spirited horse.' In this respect I beg of you to follow my example. In order not to approach you surreptitiously, but openly as always, I say that in future works of the character you might give more heed to the individualization of the voices."

"Follow the advice of others only in the rarest cases."

"Fate gave man the courage of endurance."

"For me there can be no recreation in human society, refined conversation, mutual exchange of thoughts and feelings; only so far as necessity compels may I give myself to society,?I must live like an exile."

"Force, which is a unit, will always prevail against the majority which is divided."

"Fortune is round like a globe, hence, naturally, does not always fall on the noblest and best."

"Freedom,?progress, is purpose in the art-world as in universal creation, and if we moderns have not the hardihood of our ancestors, refinement of manners has surely accomplished something."

"Go on; do not practice art alone but penetrate to her heart; she deserves it, for art and science only can raise man to godhood."

"Go on; don't only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets, art deserves that, for it and knowledge can raise men to the Divine."

"Go to the devil with your 'gracious Sir!' There is only one who can be called gracious, and that is God."

"God help me. Thou seest me deserted by all mankind. I do not want to do wrong,?hear my prayer to be with my Karl in the future for which there seems to be no possibility now. O, harsh Fate, cruel destiny. No, my unhappy condition will never end. 'This I feel and recognize clearly: Life is not the greatest of blessings; but the greatest of evils is guilt.' (From Schiller's Braut von Messina). There is no salvation for you except to hasten away from here; only by this means can you lift yourself again to the heights of your art whereas you are here sinking to the commonplace,?and a symphony?and then away,?away,?meanwhile fund the salaries which can be done for years. Work during the summer preparatory to travel; only thus can you do the great work for your poor nephew; later travel through Italy, Sicily, with a few other artists."

"God is immaterial, and for this reason transcends every conception. Since He is invisible He can have no form. But from what we observe in His work we may conclude that He is eternal, omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent."

"Friendship and similar sentiments bring only wounds to me. Well, so be it; for you, poor Beethoven, there is no outward happiness; you must create it within you,?only in the world of ideality shall you find friends."

"From childhood I learned to love virtue, and everything beautiful and good."

"Frequently it seems as if I should almost go mad over my undeserved fame; fortune seeks me out and I almost fear new misfortune on that account."

"From the glow of enthusiasm I let the melody escape. I pursue it. Breathless I catch up with it. It flies again, it disappears, it plunges into a chaos of diverse emotions. I catch it again, I seize it, I embrace it with delight? I multiply it by modulations, and at last I triumph in the first theme. There is the whole symphony."

"From my earliest childhood my zeal to serve suffering humanity with my art was never content with any kind of a subterfuge; and no other reward is needed than the internal satisfaction which always accompanies such a deed."

"God knows why it is that my pianoforte music always makes the worst impression on me, especially when it is played badly."

"Goethe has killed Klopstock for me. You wonder? Now you laugh? Ah, because I have read Klopstock. I carried him about with me for years when I walked. What besides? Well, I didn't always understand him. He skips about so; and he always begins so far away, above or below; always Maestoso! D-flat major! Isn't, it so? But he's great, nevertheless, and uplifts the soul. When I couldn't understand him I sort of guessed at him."

"God, who knows my innermost soul, and knows how sacredly I have fulfilled all the duties but upon me as man by humanity, God and nature will surely someday relieve me from these afflictions."

"Goethe is too fond of the atmosphere of the court; fonder than becomes a poet. There is little room for sport over the absurdities of the virtuosi, when poets, who ought to be looked upon as the foremost teachers of the nation, can forget everything else in the enjoyment of court glitter."

"Goethe and Schiller are my favorite poets, as also Ossian and Homer, the latter of whom, unfortunately, I can read only in translation."

"H. is, and always will be, too weak for friendship, and I look upon him and Y. as mere instruments upon which I play when I feel like it; but they can never be witnesses of my internal and external activities, and just as little real participants. I value them according as they do me service."

"Goethe's poems exert a great power over me not only because of their contents but also because of their rhythms; I am stimulated to compose by this language, which builds itself up to higher orders as if through spiritual agencies, and bears in itself the secret of harmonies."

"Good heavens! Do they think in Saxony that the words make good music? If an inappropriate word can spoil the music, which is true, then we ought to be glad when we find that words and music are one and not try to improve matters even if the verbal expression is commonplace?dixi."

"Goethe ought not to write more; he will meet the fate of the singers. Nevertheless he will remain the foremost poet of Germany."

"Good singing was my guide; I strove to write as flowingly as possible and trusted in my ability to justify myself before the judgment-seat of sound reason and pure taste."

"Ha! 'Faust;' that would be a piece of work! Something might come out of that! But for some time I have been big with three other large works. Much is already sketched out, that is, in my head. I must be rid of them first:?two large symphonies differing from each other, and each differing from all the others, and an oratorio. And this will take a long time, you see, for a considerable time I have had trouble to get myself to write. I sit and think, and think I've long had the thing, but it will not on the paper. I dread the beginning of these large works. Once into the work, and it goes."