Only sick music makes money today.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Since music is a language with some meaning at least for the immense majority of mankind, although only a tiny minority of people are capable of formulating a meaning in it, and since it is the only language with the contradictory attributes of being at once intelligible and untranslatable, the musical creator is a being comparable to the gods, and music itself the supreme mystery of the science of man, a mystery that all the various disciplines come up against and which holds the key to their progress.
—Claude Levi-Strauss (1908–2009) French Social Anthropologist, Philosopher
Yea, music is the prophet’s art; among the gifts that God hath sent, one of the most magnificent.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
Music is the shorthand of emotion.
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian Novelist
Music is the universal language of mankind
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
If you can walk you can dance. If you can talk you can sing.
—African Proverb
And my goal in life is to give to the world what I was lucky to receive: the ecstasy of divine union through my music and my dance.
—Michael Jackson (1958–2009) American Singer-Songwriter
I am always writing a potpourri of music. I want to give the world escapism through the wonder of great music and to reach the masses.
—Michael Jackson (1958–2009) American Singer-Songwriter
You cannot have your cake and eat it.
—Unknown
I went to the Bach Choir concert and heard Mozart’s Requiem. I did not rise warmly to it. Then I heard an extract from Parsifal which I disliked very much. If Bach wriggles, Wagner writhes…
—Samuel Butler
This world is not a platform where you will hear Thalberg-piano-playing. It is a piano manufactory, where are dust and shavings and boards, and saws and files and rasps and sandpapers. The perfect instrument and the music will be hereafter.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
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
We love music for the buried hopes, the garnered memories, the tender feelings it can summon at a touch.
—Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–38) English Poet, Novelist
Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie.
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
Is it not strange that sheep’s guts should hale souls out of men’s bodies?
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
A symphony is a stage play with the parts written for instruments instead of for actors.
—Colin Wilson (b.1931) British Philosopher, Novelist
Difficult do you call it, Sir? I wish it were impossible.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
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
I was a veteran before I was a teenager.
—Michael Jackson (1958–2009) American Singer-Songwriter
Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
Music, once admitted to the soul, becomes a sort of spirit, and never dies. It wanders perturbedly through the halls and galleries of the memory, and is often heard again, distinct and living, as when it first displaced the wavelets of the air.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time. My people are Americans and my time is today.
—George Gershwin (1898–1937) American Composer, Pianist
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
Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
I think no woman I have had ever gave me so sweet a moment, or at so light a price, as the moment I owe to a newly heard musical phrase.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle) (1783–1842) French Writer
Music, of all the liberal arts, has the greatest influence over the passions, and is that to which the legislator ought to give the greatest encouragement.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music.
—Walter Pater (1839–94) English Critic, Essayist
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) British Clergyman, Theologian
A note of music gains significance from the silence on either side.
—Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) American Aviator, Author
The lines of poetry, the periods of prose, and even the texts of Scripture most frequently recollected and quoted, are those which are felt to be pre eminently musical.
—William Shenstone (1714–63) British Poet, Landscape Gardener