Beethoven, the Man and the Artist Part 20

288. "I was formerly inconsiderate and hasty in the expression of my opinions, and thereby I made enemies. Now I pa.s.s judgment on no one, and, indeed, for the reason that I do not wish to do any one harm.

Moreover, in the last instance I always think: if it is something decent it will maintain itself in spite of all attack and envy; if there is nothing good and sound at the bottom of it, it will fall to pieces of itself, bolster it up as one may."

(In a conversation with Tomaschek, in October, 1814.)

289. "Even the most sacred friends.h.i.+p may harbor secrets, but you ought not to misinterpret the secret of a friend because you can not guess it."

(About 1808, to Frau Marie Bigot.)

290. "You are happy; it is my wish that you remain so, for every man is best placed in his sphere."

(Bonn, July 13, 1825, to his brother Johann, landowner in Gneisendorf.)

291. "One must not measure the cost of the useful."

(To his nephew Karl in a discussion touching the purchase of an expensive book.)

292. "It is not my custom to prattle away my purposes, since every intention once betrayed is no longer one's own."

(To Frau Streicher.)

293. "How stupidity and wretchedness always go in pairs!"

(Diary, 1817.)

[Beethoven was greatly vexed by his servants.]

294. "Hope nourishes me; it nourishes half the world, and has been my neighbor all my life, else what had become of me!"

(August 11, 1810, to Bettina von Arnim.)

295. "Fortune is round like a globe, hence, naturally, does not always fall on the n.o.blest and best."

(Vienna, July 29, 1800, to Wegeler.)

296. "Show your power, Fate! We are not our own masters; what is decided must be,--and so be it!"

(Diary, 1818.)

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

(Diary, 1818.)

298. "With tranquility, O G.o.d, will I submit myself to changes, and place all my trust in Thy unalterable mercy and goodness."

(Diary, 1818.)

299. "All misfortune is mysterious and greatest when viewed alone; discussed with others it seems more endurable because one becomes entirely familiar with the things one dreads, and feels as if one had overcome it."

(Diary, 1816.)

300. "One must not flee for protection to poverty against the loss of riches, nor to a lack of friends.h.i.+p against the loss of friends, nor by abstention from procreation against the death of children, but to reason against everything."

(Diary, 1816.)

301. "I share deeply with you the righteous sorrow over the death of your wife. It seems to me that such a parting, which confronts nearly every married man, ought to keep one in the ranks of the unmarried."

(May 20, 1811, to Gottfried Hartel, of Leipzig.)

302. "He who is afflicted with a malady which he can not alter, but which gradually brings him nearer and nearer to death, without which he would have lived longer, ought to reflect that murder or another cause might have killed him even more quickly."

(Diary, 1812-18.)

303. "We finite ones with infinite souls are born only for sorrows and joy and it might almost be said that the best of us receive joy through sorrow."

(October 19, 1815, to Countess Erdody.)