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Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.

— Victor Hugo William Shakespeare (1864)

Ce qu’on ne peut dire et ce qu’on ne peut taire, la musique l’exprime.

Original text (French)

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Notes from Wikiquote

Part I, Book II, Chapter IV

Topics

Music

More quotes by Victor Hugo

Happy, even in anguish, is he to whom God has given a soul worthy of love and of grief!

Les Misérables (1862)

One can no more pray too much than love too much.

Les Misérables (1862)

The best way to worship God is to love your wife.

Les Misérables (1862)

To love or to have loved, that is enough. Ask nothing further. There is no other pearl to be found in the dark folds of life. To love is a consummation.

Les Misérables (1862)

To put everything in balance is good, to put everything in harmony is better.

Ninety-Three (1874)

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The emphasis of study upon a particular aspect of music is in itself ideological because it contains implications about the music's value.

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Music is well said to be the speech of angels.

Thomas Carlyle Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827)

Music has no subject beyond the combinations of notes we hear, for music speaks not only by means of sounds, it speaks nothing but sound.

Eduard Hanslick

Above the pitch, out of tune, and off the hinges.

François Rabelais Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Victor Hugo (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.