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.

O, 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, and I would have ended my life - it was only my art that held me back. Ah, it seemed impossible to leave the world until I had brought forth all that I felt was within me.

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

Ludwig van Beethoven Quotes