Often when contending with the obstacles of every sort opposed to my work, often when my powers both of body and mind failed, and I felt it a hard matter to persevere in the course I had entered on, a secret feeling within me whispered, 'There are but few contented and happy men here below; everywhere grief and care prevail, perhaps your labours may one day be the source from which the weary and worn or the man burdened with affairs may derive a few moments' rest and refreshment.' What a powerful motive to press onwards!
What it means
When the work got hard and his strength gave out, Haydn kept going by remembering who it was for. Most people carry grief and worry, he told himself, and his music might give some of them a few moments of rest.
The motive isn’t fame or duty. It’s the thought that the work might do someone else good.
The context
In 1802, late in his life, the members of the Musical Union in Bergen paid Haydn a compliment, and he wrote to thank them. His biographer J. Cuthbert Hadden says Haydn wrote “of the happiness it gave him to think of so many families susceptible of true feeling deriving pleasure and enjoyment from his compositions.”
After this passage, Haydn adds: “And this is why I now look back with heartfelt, cheerful satisfaction on the work to which I have devoted such a long succession of years with such persevering efforts and exertions.” Hadden places it under the heading “High Ideals.”
Why it matters
Willpower runs out. A reason doesn’t, especially one about other people. When Haydn’s body and mind failed, what carried him was a picture of someone tired being helped by what he made.
It’s a question worth asking when your own work feels like a slog: who will this help, even a little? A clear answer can do more than any amount of gritted teeth.
About Joseph Haydn
Austrian composer, 1732–1809
Joseph Haydn was born in Rohrau, Austria, in 1732, the child of working people in a rural village. He began as a chorister at St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, went through an arduous period as a freelance musician, and then spent much of his working life as music director for the wealthy Esterházy family.
He was pivotal in shaping the string quartet and the piano trio, and is often called the “Father of the Symphony”. After his patron Nikolaus Esterházy died in 1790, Haydn was free to travel and added to his fame in London and Vienna. He died in Vienna on 31 May 1809.
The source, and how we checked it
It comes from Letter to the Musical Union in Bergen, as given in J. Cuthbert Hadden, Haydn, 1802.
We matched the words against the Project Gutenberg text of J. Cuthbert Hadden's 1902 biography, in the section "High Ideals". Haydn wrote in German; Hadden gives the letter in English without naming a translator. We last checked this on 9 November 2026.