“It is impossible to exist without passion”

Source: Think (1999), Chapter Four, The Self, p. 136

Advice to Clever Children (1981)

Source: In My Own Way: An Autobiography 1915-1965 (1972), p. 123

Ron English's Fauxlosophy: Volume 2 (2022)

Letter to Jonathan Sewall (October 1759)
1750s
Context: Tis impossible to judge with much Præcision of the true Motives and Qualities of human Actions, or of the Propriety of Rules contrived to govern them, without considering with like Attention, all the Passions, Appetites, Affections in Nature from which they flow. An intimate Knowledge therefore of the intellectual and moral World is the sole foundation on which a stable structure of Knowledge can be erected.

As quoted in Social Networking for Authors: Untapped Possibilities for Wealth (2009) by Michael Volkin, p. 60
2000s, 2009

The Genteel Tradition at Bay (1931)
Other works

The Passion (1987)

Not found in Beethoven's known works. It may be a summary of the following description of Beethoven from his piano pupil Ferdinand Ries: "When I left out something in a passage, a note or a skip, which in many cases he wished to have specially emphasized, or struck a wrong key, he seldom said anything; yet when I was at fault with regard to the expression, the crescendo or matters of that kind, or in the character of the piece, he would grow angry. Mistakes of the other kind, he said were due to chance; but these last resulted from want of knowledge, feeling or attention. He himself often made mistakes of the first kind, even playing in public."
Disputed
Variant: To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable