“Intellectuals solve problems; geniuses prevent them.” – Albert Einstein

From “The Human Condition: A User’s Manual,” by Arnold Kunst

3 September

Beethoven could be a real pain. For example, he’d humiliate one of his friends at a restaurant by making a joke at his expense – and the guy would still be his friend because of the peerless power of his music. Whatever else you might say about the man, Beethoven was not about to be ignored. What other composer, before or since, can match the following? “He who knows how to listen to my music will be freed from the troubles that plague others”? For everyone who wrote him off as supremely arrogant there were others who hung on every sfortzando he ever wrote. That character trait explains why, on a walk, say, in the fashionable parks of Vienna he had the advantage - if that's the word I want - of walking right through the midst of any of the aristocracy he happened to encounter. His unapologetic attitude was, “you are nobility by virtue of your birth: I am nobility by virtue of my innate genius.”