Modern dancers give a sinister portent about our times.
—Agnes de Mille (1905–93) American Dancer, Choreographer
Dancing is just discovery, discovery, discovery.
—Martha Graham (1894–1991) American Choreographer
You can’t lie when you dance. It’s so direct. You do what is in you. You can’t dance out of the side of your mouth.
—Shirley MacLaine (b.1934) American Actor, Dancer, Author, Activist
I would believe only in a God that knows how to dance.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Dancing begets warmth, which is the parent of wantonness. It is, Sir, the great grandfather of cuckoldom.
—Henry Fielding (1707–54) English Novelist, Dramatist
Dancing in all its forms cannot be excluded from the curriculum of all noble education; dancing with the feet, with ideas, with words, and, need I add that one must also be able to dance with the pen?
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Life is like a ballet performance—danced only once.
—African Proverb
All are not merry that dance lightly.
—English Proverb
The rich man never dances badly.
—African Proverb
Out of abundance and still abundance remained.
—The Upanishads Sacred Books of Hinduism
Dancing with the feet is one thing, but dancing with the heart is another.
—Unknown
Dance is the hidden language of the soul.
—Martha Graham (1894–1991) American Choreographer
We look at the dance to impart the sensation of living in an affirmation of life, to energize the spectator into keener awareness of the vigor, the mystery, the humor, the variety, and the wonder of life. This is the function of the American dance.
—Martha Graham (1894–1991) American Choreographer
A bad dancer always has trouble with his balls.
—Russian Proverb
How inimitably graceful children are in general before they learn to dance!
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
The bear dances but the tamer collects the money.
—Russian Proverb
Those who can’t dance say the music is no good.
—Jamaican Proverb
A nice definition of an awakened person: a person who no longer marches to the drums of society, a person who dances to the tune of the music that springs up from within.
—Anthony de Mello (1931–87) Indian-born American Theologian
Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.
—Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
On with the dance, let joy be unconfined is my motto, whether there’s a dance to dance or any joy to unconfine.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
It’s a sin to be poor! He wasn’t referring to moral turpitude, but rather to “the frustration of potentiality”. He believed and taught that, when we establish ourselves in the consciousness of God, the whole universe moves to flow into us with its abundance of life and substance. This is obviously what Jesus had in mind when he said, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well”.
—Unknown
Dancing is the poetry of the foot.
—John Dryden (1631–1700) English Poet, Literary Critic, Playwright
I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, for love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith, but the faith and the love are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.
—T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) American-born British Poet, Dramatist, Literary Critic
Dancers are the athletes of God.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
A woman who dances too much gets ill from little work.
—French Proverb
Don’t dance on a volcano.
—French Proverb
How can we know the dancer from the dance?
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) Irish Poet, Dramatist
An old cat will never learn to dance.
—Moroccan Proverb
The only dance masters I could have were Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Walt Whitman and Nietzsche.
—Isadora Duncan (1877–1927) American Dancer, Choreographer
Dance is a delicate balance between perfection and beauty.
—Indian Proverb