"What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven."
— Ludwig van Beethoven
What You Are You Are By
What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven.
About this quote
This remark is traditionally attributed to a confrontation with Prince Karl von Lichnowsky at his Silesian estate in 1806, when the Prince pressured Beethoven to perform for occupying French officers. The defiant declaration circulated in early biographical accounts and captures Beethoven's broader conviction — expressed repeatedly in letters — that artistic genius constituted a nobility superior to that of birth, at a time when the aristocratic patronage system was beginning to give way to the public concert market.
Source
Reported remark to Prince Karl Lichnowsky, 1806
