Quotes about music

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

Addison, Joseph on music
4 fans of this quote   

"Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense."

Addison, Joseph on music   

"Mozart has the classic purity of light and the blue ocean; Beethoven the romantic grandeur which belongs to the storms of air and sea, and while the soul of Mozart seems to dwell on the ethereal peaks of Olympus, that of Beethoven climbs shuddering the storm-beaten sides of a Sinai. Blessed be they both! Each represents a moment of the ideal life, each does us good. Our love is due to both."

Amiel, Henri Frederic on music   

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"What we play is life."

Armstrong, Louis on music
3 fans of this quote   

"There is two kinds of music the good and bad. I play the good kind."

Armstrong, Louis on music   

"Today, music heralds... the establishment of a society of repetition in which nothing will happen anymore."

Attali, Jacques on music   

"A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become."

Auden, W. H. on music   

"Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."

Auerbach, Berthold on music
18 fans of this quote   

"I wish Frank Sinatra would just shut up and sing."

Bacall, Lauren on music   

"There are two golden rules for an orchestra: start together and finish together. The public doesn't give a damn what goes on in between."

Beecham, Sir Thomas on music   

"The English may not like music, but they absolutely love the noise it makes."

Beecham, Sir Thomas on music   

"Great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and leaves the memory with difficulty. Magical music never leaves the memory."

Beecham, Sir Thomas on music
9 fans of this quote   

"A musicologist is a man who can read music but cannot hear it."

Beecham, Sir Thomas on music   

"She was one of those people who said I don't know anything about music, but I know what I like."

Beerbohm, Sir Max on music   

"Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth."

Beethoven, Ludwig Van on music   

"Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life."

Beethoven, Ludwig Van on music
17 fans of this quote   

"Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman."

Beethoven, Ludwig Van on music
6 fans of this quote   

"Music hath the charm to soothe a savage beast, but I'd try a revolver first."

Billings, Josh on music   

"Music of all the arts has the most influence on the passions and the legislator should give it the greatest encouragement."

Bonaparte, Napoleon on music   

"Music is the fourth great material want, first food, then clothes, then shelter, then music."

Bovee, Christian Nevell on music
7 fans of this quote   

"It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness and of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature, and everlasting beauty of monotony."

Britten, Benjamin on music
4 fans of this quote   

"We are aware that the conductor is not really making the music, it is making him -- if he is relaxed, open and attuned, then the invisible will take possession of him; through him, it will reach us."

Brook, Peter (Stephen Paul) on music   

"I've outdone anyone you can name -- Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Strauss. Irving Berlin, he wrote 1,001 tunes. I wrote 5,500."

Brown, James on music   

" I'm not going to be joining ZZ Top. You know they can't play my stuff. It's too complicated."

Brown, James on music   

"It is a wise tune that knows its own father, and I like my music to be the legitimate offspring of respectable parents."

Butler, Samuel on music   

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"It is better to make a piece of music than to perform one, better to perform one than to listen to one, better to listen to one than to misuse it as a means of distraction, entertainment, or acquisition of culture."

Cage, John on music   

"Truly fertile Music, the only kind that will move us, that we shall truly appreciate, will be a Music conducive to Dream, which banishes all reason and analysis. One must not wish first to understand and then to feel. Art does not tolerate Reason."

Camus, Albert on music
6 fans of this quote   

"A lot of people are singing about how screwed up the world is, and I don't think that everybody wants to hear about that all the time."

Carey, Mariah on music   

"If you look deep enough you will see music; the heart of nature being everywhere music."

Carlyle, Thomas on music
8 fans of this quote   

"One is hardly sensible of fatigue while he marches to music."

Carlyle, Thomas on music
3 fans of this quote   

"Song is the heroics of speech."

Carlyle, Thomas on music   

"Music is well said to be the speech of angels; in fact, nothing among the utterances allowed to man is felt to be so divine. It brings us near to the infinite."

Carlyle, Thomas on music   

"It's a marvelous feeling when someone says I want to do this song of yours because they've connected to it. That's what I'm after."

Carpenter, Mary Chapin on music   

"Alas! all music jars when the soul's out of tune."

Cervantes, Miguel De on music   

"Music is the refuge of souls ulcerated by happiness."

Cioran, E. M. on music   

"All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it."

Cocteau, Jean on music
10 fans of this quote   

"Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak."

Congreve, William on music
7 fans of this quote   

"Without music, life is a journey through a desert."

Conroy, Pat on music
9 fans of this quote   

"Canned music is like audible wallpaper."

Cooke, Alistair on music   

"Nothing separates the generations more than music. By the time a child is eight or nine, he has developed a passion for his own music that is even stronger than his passions for procrastination and weird clothes."

Cosby, Bill on music
5 fans of this quote