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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.

Random quote on Music

Most quoted on music:

If the pulse of the patriot, soldier, or lover,
Have throbb'd at our lay, 'tis thy glory alone;
I was but as the wind, passing heedlessly over,
And all the wild sweetness I wak'd was thy own.

Thomas Moore

It is so characteristic, that just when the mechanics of reproduction are so vastly improved, there are fewer and fewer people who know how the music should be played.

Ludwig Wittgenstein Personal Recollections (1981)

All is beautiful and unceasing,
all is music and reason,
and all, like diamond,
is carbon first, then light.

José Martí Simple Verses (1891)

Let us then blend everything: love, religion, genius, with sunshine, perfume, music, and poetry.

Anne Louise Germaine de Staël Corinne (1807)

Music, the greatest good that mortals know,
And all of heaven we have below.

Joseph Addison Song for St. Cecilia's Day (1692)

All of us have the privilege of making music that helps and heals — to make music that makes people happier, stronger and kinder. Don't forget: music is God's voice.

Brian Wilson

If children are not introduced to music at an early age, I believe something fundamental is actually being taken from them.

Luciano Pavarotti A Gift of Days: The Greatest Words to Live By (2009)

I can only think of music as something inherent in every human being - a birthright. Music coordinates mind, body and spirit.

Yehudi Menuhin

Music trains the mind, like mathematics, or logic, to precision of mind.

Guy Gavriel Kay Tigana (1990)

Friends share music with each other, they don't allow themselves to be divided by a system that says that nobody is supposed to have copies.

Richard Stallman LibrePlanet Keynote Speech (2015)

If she but smile, the crystal calm shall break
In music, sweeter than it ever gave,
As when a breeze breathes o'er some sleeping lake,
And laughs in every wave.

Bayard Taylor The Return of the Goddess (1850)

Understanding music simply means not being irritated or puzzled by it.

Charles Rosen The Frontiers of Meaning: Three Informal Lectures on Music (1994)

A single note from the lute, however beautiful, is not music.

Lu Ji

In my music, I'm trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason it's difficult is because I'm changing all the time.

Charles Mingus

Music is like magic: there's a certain feeling you get when you're real and you spit and people are feelin' your shit

Eminem The Eminem Show (2002)

Music creates order out of chaos: for rhythm imposes unanimity upon the divergent, melody imposes continuity upon the disjointed, and harmony imposes compatibility upon the incongruous.

Yehudi Menuhin

Music has charms to soothe a savage breast — but not the unmusical one.

Alexander Chase Sandra Lee Stuart (1980)

It is a blessing to be able to do what I love for a living, and to have people appreciate my music.

Hebe Tien Hebe Tien (2016)

I really thought I could give it up... But I really love music, and having a creative outlet is really the best thing you can do for yourself.

Edie Brickell

Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.

Georges Clemenceau The Unlawful Concert : An Account of the Presidio Mutiny Case (1970)

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