Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents.
Ludwig Van BeethovenRead
The world is a king, and like a king, desires flattery in return for favor; but true art is selfish and perverse — it will not submit to the mold of flattery.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True art is independent and does not seek validation through flattery or popularity.
In this quote, Beethoven suggests that the essence of true art lies in its authenticity and self-expression rather than conforming to societal expectations or seeking approval. He likens the world to a king that rewards flattery, implying that artists should remain true to their vision instead of pandering to public opinion or the whims of the masses.
Themes
ArtAuthenticityFlatteryExpressionCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about artistic integrity at a seminar, you might quote Beethoven to emphasize the importance of staying true to one's creative vision.
More from Ludwig Van Beethoven
All quotes →I alter some things, eliminate and try again until I am satisfied. Then begins the mental working out of this material in its breadth, its narrowness, its height and depth.
Ludwig Van BeethovenRead
Often, I can scarcely hear any one speaking to me; the tones yes, but not the actual words; yet as soon as any one shouts, it is unbearable. What will come of all this, heaven only knows!
Ludwig Van BeethovenRead
Music is the wine which inspires one to new generative processes, and I am Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for mankind and makes them spiritually drunken.
Ludwig Van BeethovenRead
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.
Ludwig Van BeethovenRead
Recommend virtue to your children; it alone, not money, can make them happy. I speak from experience.
Ludwig Van BeethovenRead
Similar quotes
Popularity is the crown of laurel which the world puts on bad art. Whatever is popular is wrong.
Oscar WildeRead
In the course of our daily lives, we're bombarded with a barrage of visual messages, some blatantly aggressive, some subtle. The trick is to find a way to break through without adding to the clutter and the ugliness. We have to be responsible about that.
Saul BassRead
Beauty, midnight, vision dies: Let the winds of dawn that blow Softly round your dreaming head Such a day of welcome show Eye and knocking heart may bless, Find our mortal world enough; Noons of dryness find you fed By the involuntary powers, Nights of insult let you pass Watched by every human love.
W. H. AudenRead
Everything I record, I just try to sound like me and come up with songs that suit what I do and then just go for it. I never know what the public's going to like, anyway.
B. B. KingRead
Prowling the meanings of a word, prowling the history of a person, no use expecting a flood of light. Human words have no main switch. But all those little kidnaps in the dark. And then the luminous, big, shivering, discandied, unrepentant, barking web of them that hangs in your mind when you turn back to the page you were trying to translate.
Anne CarsonRead
Poets are never allowed to be mediocre by the gods, by men or by publishers.
HoraceRead