Ere music's golden tongue
Flattered to tears this aged man and poor.
Music Quotes
Shakespeare has the most entries, as usual, with Claude Debussy and Wordsworth well up the list. The best-sourced line is Nietzsche’s in Twilight of the Idols (1889), that without music life would be a mistake, and Emerson’s image of the silent organ chanting loudest (Poems, 1847) is the sort of thing that rewards a second read.
The three entries with flags are all ones people like to share. “Wagner’s music is better than it sounds” is credited to Mark Twain and flagged misattributed. “You grow with music, or the music outgrows you” is credited to John Lennon, and the note says no verifiable source has been found. The line about music being the best means we have of digesting time is credited to W. H. Auden and is flagged misattributed as well.
Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould
Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment?
As some to Church repair,
Not for the doctrine, but the music there.
This music crept by me upon the waters,
Allaying both their fury and my passion
With its sweet air.
I'm the sweetest sound in orchestra heard
Yet in orchestra never have been.
He is dead, the sweet musician!
* * * *
He has moved a little nearer
To the Master of all music.
"Music hath charms to soothe the savage beast,"
And therefore proper at a sheriff's feast.
And with a secret pain,
And smiles that seem akin to tears,
We hear the wild refrain.
Music, or any art form... has to strike the right balance between simplicity and complexity.