(To Ferdinand Ries, in 1801. Ries’s father had been kind to Beethoven on
the death of his mother in 1787.)
201. “I would rather forget what I owe to myself than what I owe to others.”
(To Frau Streicher, in the summer of 1817.)
202. “I never practice revenge. When I must antagonize others I do no more than is necessary to protect myself against them, or prevent them from doing further evil.”
(To Frau Streicher, in reference to the troubles which his servants gave
him, many of which, no doubt, were due to faults of his own, excusable
in a man in his condition of health.)
203. “Be convinced that mankind, even in your case, will always be sacred to me.”
(To Czapka, Magisterial Councillor, August, 1826, in the matter of his
nephew’s attempt at suicide.)
204. “H. is, and always will be, too weak for friendship, and I look upon him and Y. as mere instruments upon which I play when I feel like it; but they can never be witnesses of my internal and external activities, and just as little real participants. I value them according as they do me service.”
(Summer of 1800, to the friend of his youth, Pastor Amenda. H. was
probably the faithful Baron Zmeskall von Domanovecz.)
205. “If it amuses them to talk and write about me in that manner, let them go on.”