(May 19, 1825, to his nephew Karl.)
156. “You can not honor the memory of your father better than to continue your studies with the greatest zeal, and strive to become an honest and excellent man.”
(To his nephew, 1816-18.)
157. “Let your conduct always be amiable; through art and science the best and noblest of men are bound together and your future vocation will not exclude you.”
(Baden, July 18, 1825, to his nephew, who had decided to become a
merchant.)
158. “It is very true that a drop will hollow a stone; a thousand lovely impressions are obliterated when children are placed in wooden institutions while they might receive from their parents the most soulful impressions which would continue to exert their influence till the latest age.”
(Diary, spring of 1817. Beethoven was dissatisfied with Giannatasio’s
school in which he had placed his nephew. “Karl is a different child
after he has been with me a few hours” (Diary). In 1826, after the
attempt at suicide, Beethoven said to Breuning: “My Karl was in an
institute; educational institutions furnish forth only hot house
plants.”)
159. “Drops of water wear away a stone in time, not by force but by continual falling. Only through tireless industry are the sciences achieved so that one can truthfully say: no day without its line,—nulla dies sine linea.”
(1799, in a sketch for a theoretical handbook for Archduke Rudolph.)