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We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams; —
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.

— Arthur O'Shaughnessy Music and Moonlight (1874)

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Music

More quotes by Arthur O'Shaughnessy

For each age is a dream that is dying,
Or one that is coming to birth.

With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world's great cities,
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion an empire's glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song's measure
Can trample a kingdom down.

Music and Moonlight (1874)

The stars are dimly seen among the shadows of the bay,
And lights that win are seen in strife with lights that die away.

Music and Moonlight (1874)

O precious is the pause between the winds that come and go,
And sweet the silence of the shores between the ebb and flow.

Music and Moonlight (1874)

One man with a dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a crown
And three with a new song's measure
Can trample a kingdom down.

All Arthur O'Shaughnessy quotes →

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Music is well said to be the speech of angels.

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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: Arthur O'Shaughnessy (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.