I often thought that if there had been a good rap group around in those days, I might have chosen a career in music instead of politics.
—Richard Nixon (1913–94) American Head of State, Lawyer
Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.
—Martin Mull (1943–2024) American Actor, Comedian
There is something marvelous in music. I might almost say it is, in itself, a marvel. Its position is somewhere between the region of thought and that of phenomena; a glimmering medium between mind and matter, related to both and yet differing from either. Spiritual, and yet requiring rhythm; material, and yet independent of space.
—Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) German Poet, Writer
It is a wise tune that knows its own father, and I like my music to be the legitimate offspring of respectable parents.
—Samuel Butler
Music is only love looking for words.
—Lawrence Durrell (1912–90) English Novelist, Poet, Travel Writer
There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we’d all love one another.
—Frank Zappa (1940–93) American Rock Guitarist, Singer, Composer
Some of the fathers went so far as to esteem the love of music a sign of predestination, as a thing divine, and reserved for the felicities of heaven itself.
—William Temple (1881–1944) English Theologian, Archbishop
I think music in itself is healing. It’s an explosive expression of humanity. It’s something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we’re from, everyone loves music.
—Billy Joel (b.1949) American Singer, Songwriter, Musician
Music was invented to confirm human loneliness.
—Lawrence Durrell (1912–90) English Novelist, Poet, Travel Writer
Music, in the best sense, does not require novelty; nay, the older it is, and the more we are accustomed to it, the greater its effect.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Music is one of the fairest and most glorious gifts of God, to which Satan is a bitter enemy, for it removes from the heart the weight of sorrow, and the fascination of evil thoughts.
—Martin Luther (1483–1546) German Protestant Theologian
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
All my concerts had no sounds in them; they were completely silent. People had to make up their own music in their minds!
—Yoko Ono (b.1933) Japanese Artist, Musician, Campaigner
Music, the greatest good that mortals know, And all of heaven we have below.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
A note of music gains significance from the silence on either side.
—Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) American Aviator, Author
Of course the music is a great difficulty. You see, if one plays good music, people don’t listen, and if one plays bad music people don’t talk.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
What needs to be discharged is the intolerable tenderness of the The Past past gone and grieved over and never made sense of. Music ransoms us from the past, declares an amnesty, brackets and sets aside the old puzzles. Start a new life, get a girl, look into her shadowy eyes, smile. Fix me a toddy, Lola, and we’ll sit on the gallery of Tara and you play a tune and we’ll watch evening fall and lightning bugs wink in the purple meadow.
—Walker Percy (1916–90) American Novelist
I resent performing for frisking idiots who don’t know anything.
—John Lennon (1940–80) British Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Activist
A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become.
—W. H. Auden (1907–73) British-born American Poet, Dramatist
I was a veteran before I was a teenager.
—Michael Jackson (1958–2009) American Singer-Songwriter
There once was a brainy baboon who always breathed down a bassoon for he said, “It appears that in billions of years I shall certainly hit on a tune.”
—Ezra Pound (1885-1972) American Poet, Translator, Critic
In a world of peace and love, music would be the universal language.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music. Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-American Philosopher, Poet, Sculptor
We are the music makers,
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;
We are the movers and shakers
Of the world forever, it seems.
—Arthur O’Shaughnessy (1844–81) British Poet, Herpetologist
It is the stretched soul that makes music, and souls are stretched by the pull of opposites—opposite bents, tastes, yearnings, loyalties. Where there is no polarity—where energies flow smoothly in one direction—there will be much doing but no music.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
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.
—Peter Brook (1925–2022) English Theatre and Film Director
Music is the fourth great material want of our nature,—first food, then raiment, then shelter, then music.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
Music when healthy, is the teacher of perfect order, and when depraved, the teacher of perfect disorder.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music.
—Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) Russian Composer, Pianist
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