172. “Mentally I often frame an answer, but when I come to write it down I generally throw the pen aside, since I am not able to write what I feel.”
(October 7, 1826, to his friend Wegeler, in Coblenz. “The better sort
of people, I think, know me anyhow.” He is excusing his laziness in
letter-writing.)
173. “I have the gift to conceal my sensitiveness touching a multitude of things; but when I am provoked at a moment when I am more sensitive than usual to anger, I burst out more violently than anybody else.”
(July 24, 1804, to Ries, in reporting to him a quarrel with Stephan von
Breuning.)
174. “X. is completely changed since I threw half a dozen books at her head. Perhaps something of their contents accidentally got into her head or her wicked heart.”
(To Mme. Streicher, who often had to put Beethoven’s house in order.)
175. “I can have no intercourse, and do not want to have any, with persons who are not willing to believe in me because 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.)