“I will seize fate by the throat; it shall certainly not crush me completely.”
— Ludwig van Beethoven
From a letter to Franz Wegeler, November 1801, when Beethoven first confronted his worsening deafness and considered ending his life.
I was losing my hearing. For a musician, that is death. I sat in Heiligenstadt and wrote a letter saying goodbye. But something inside me refused. I grabbed fate by the throat and told it: you will not finish me. Then I composed my greatest symphony in complete silence. Whatever is trying to break you right now, grab it by the throat. It does not get to win.