se I have not yet made
a wide reputation."

(To Prince Lobkowitz, about 1798. A cavalier had failed to show him
proper respect in the Prince's salon.)

176. "Many a vigorous and unconsidered word drops from my mouth, for
which reason I am considered mad."

(In the summer of 1880, to Dr. Muller, of Bremen, who was paying him a
visit.)

177. "I will grapple with Fate; it shall not quite bear me down. O, it
is lovely to live life a thousand times!"

(November 16, 1800, or 1801, to Wegeler.)

178. "Morality is the strength of men who distinguish themselves over
others, and it is mine."

(In a communication to his friend, Baron Zmeskall.)

179. "I, too, am a king!"

(Said to Holz, when the latter begged him not to sell the ring which
King Frederick William III, of Prussia, had sent to him instead of money
or an order in return for the dedication of the ninth symphony. "Master,
keep the ring," Holz had said, "it is from a king." Beethoven made his
remark "with indescribable dignity and self-consciousness.")

[On his deathbed he said to little Gerhard von Breuning: "Know that I am
an artist."]

[At the height of the popular infatuation for Rossini (1822) he said to
his friends: "Well, they will not be able to rob me of my place in the
history of art."]

180. "Prince, what you are you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am
through my own efforts. There have been thousands of princes and will be
thousands more; there is only one Beethoven!"

(According to tradition, from a letter which he wrote to Prince
Lichnowsky when the latter attempted to persuade him to play for some
French officers on his estate in Silesia. Beethoven went at night to
Troppau, carrying the manuscript of the (so-called) "Appassionata"
sonata, which suffered from the rain.)

181. "My nobility is here, and here (pointing to his heart and head)."

(Reported by Schindler. In the lawsuit against his sister-in-law (the
mother of nephew Karl) Beethoven had been called on to prove that the
"van" in his name was a badge of nobility.)

182. "You write that somebody has said that I am the natural son of the
late King of Prussia. The same thing was said to me long ago, but I have
made it a rule never to write anything about myself or answer anything
that is said about me."

(October 7, 1826, to Wegeler.)

["I leave it to you to give the world an account of myself and
espe