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These facts make the creator of music a being like the gods, and make music itself the supreme mystery of human knowledge.

— Claude Lévi-Strauss Mythologiques I: Le cru et le cuit (1964)

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More quotes by Claude Lévi-Strauss

One must be very naïve or dishonest to imagine that men choose their beliefs independently of their situation.

Tristes Tropiques (1955)

Natural man did not precede society, nor is he outside it.

Tristes Tropiques (1955)

The first thing we see as we travel round the world is our own filth, thrown into the face of mankind.

Tristes Tropiques (1955)

Teaching and research are not to be confused with training for a profession. Their greatness and their misfortune is that they are a refuge or a mission.

Tristes Tropiques (1955)

The scientific mind does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right questions.

The Raw and the Cooked : Introduction to a Science of Mythology (1975)

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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.

Lucy Green

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: Claude Lévi-Strauss (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.