I believe that traditional wisdom is incomplete. A composer can have all the talent of Mozart and a passionate desire to succeed, but if he believes he cannot compose music, he will come to nothing. He will not try hard enough. He will give up too soon when the elusive right melody takes too long to materialize.
—Martin Seligman (b.1942) American Psychologist, Author
Music is God’s gift to man, the only art of Heaven given to earth, the only art of earth we take to Heaven.
—Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) English Writer, Poet
You don’t need any brains to listen to music.
—Luciano Pavarotti (1935–2007) Italian Musician
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
Percussion music is revolution. Sound and rhythm have too long been submissive to the restrictions of nineteenth century music. Today we are fighting for their emancipation. Tomorrow, with electronic music in our ears, we will hear freedom. At the present stage of revolution, a healthy lawlessness is warranted. Experiment must necessarily be carried on by hitting anything-tin pans, rice bowls, iron pipes-anything we can lay our hands on. Not only hitting, but rubbing, scraping, making sound in every possible way…What we can’t do ourselves will be done by machines which we will invent.
—John Cage (1912–92) American Composer, Philosopher, Poet, Artist
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
Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
As the great Confucius said, “The one who would be in constant happiness must frequently change”. Flow. But we keep looking back, don’t we? We cling to things in the past and cling to things in the present…Do you want to enjoy a symphony? Don’t hold on to a few bars of the music. Don’t hold on to a couple of notes. Let them pass, let them flow. The whole enjoyment of a symphony lies in your readiness to allow the notes to pass…
—Anthony de Mello (1931–87) Indian-born American Theologian
We are living in a period in which many people have changed their mind about what the use of music is or could be for them. Something that doesn’t speak or talk like a human being, that doesn’t know its definition in the dictionary or its theory in the schools, that expresses itself simply by the fact of its vibrations. People paying attention to vibratory activity, not in reaction to a fixed ideal performance, but each time attentively to how it happens to be this time, not necessarily two times the same. A music that transports the listener to the moment where he is.
—John Cage (1912–92) American Composer, Philosopher, Poet, Artist
Of all the arts beneath the heaven that man has found or God has given, none draws the soul so sweet away, as music’s melting, mystic lay; slight emblem of the bliss above, it soothes the spirit all to love.
—James Hogg (1770–1835) Scottish Poet, Novelist
Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music.
—Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) Russian Composer, Pianist
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.
—Bill Cosby (b.1937) American Actor, Comedian, Activist, Producer, Author
Collect impressions. Don’t be in a hurry to write them down. Because that’s something music can do better than painting: it can centralise variations of colour and light within a single picture—a truth generally ignored, obvious as it is.
—Claude Debussy (1862-1918) French Composer
Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
—Berthold Auerbach (1812-82) German Novelist
No change in musical style will survive unless it is accompanied by a change in clothing style. Rock is to dress up to.
—Frank Zappa (1940–93) American Rock Guitarist, Singer, Composer
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
Music is the art of the prophets, the only art that can calm the agitations of the soul; it is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us.
—Martin Luther (1483–1546) German Protestant Theologian
Music is the space between the notes.
—Claude Debussy (1862-1918) French Composer
Where painting is weakest, namely, in the expression of the highest moral and spiritual ideas, there music is sublimely strong.
—Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–96) American Abolitionist, Author
A good composer does not imitate; he steals.
—Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) Russian-born American Composer, Musician
Music and dancing (the more the pity) have become so closely associated with ideas of riot and debauchery among the less cultivated classes, that a taste for them, for their own sakes, can hardly be said to exist, and before they can be recommended as innocent or safe amusements, a very great change of ideas must take place.
—John Herschel (1792–1871) English Mathematician, Astronomer, Chemist
Almost all my tragedies were sketched in my mind, either in the act of hearing music, or a few hours after.
—Vittorio Alfieri (1749–1803) Italian Poet, Dramatist
Music has charms to soothe the savage beast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.
—William Congreve (1670–1729) English Playwright, Poet
The most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear.
—Frank Sinatra (1915–1998) American Singer
Poetry and Hums aren’t things which you get, they’re things which get you. And all you can do is to go where they can find you.
—A. A. Milne (1882–1956) British Humorist, Playwright, Children’s Writer
Beauty addresses itself chiefly to sight, but there is a beauty for the hearing too, as in certain combinations so words and in all kinds of music; for melodies and cadences are beautiful; and minds that lift themselves above the realm of sense to a higher order are aware of beauty in the conduct of life, in actions, in character, in the pursuits of the intellect; and there is the beauty of the virtues.
—Plotinus (c.205–270 CE) Greek Philosopher, Founder of Neoplatonism
There is something suspicious about music, gentlemen. I insist that she is, by her nature, equivocal. I shall not be going too far in saying at once that she is politically suspect.
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955) German Novelist, Short Story Writer, Social Critic, Philanthropist, Essayist
Sure there is music even in the beauty, and the silent note which Cupid strikes, far sweeter than the sound of an instrument. For there is music where ever there is a harmony, order, or proportion: and thus far we may maintain the music of the spheres.
—Thomas Browne (1605–82) English Author, Physician
Music moves us, and we know not why; we feel the tears, but cannot trace their source. Is it the language of some other state, born of its memory? For what can wake the soul’s strong instinct of another world like music?
—Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–38) English Poet, Novelist
Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end.
—Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) Russian-born American Composer, Musician
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
She was one of those people who said “I don’t know anything about music, but I know what I like.”
—Max Beerbohm (1872–1956) British Essayist, Caricaturist, Novelist
A symphony is a stage play with the parts written for instruments instead of for actors.
—Colin Wilson (b.1931) British Philosopher, Novelist
Music, the mosaic of the air.
—Andrew Marvell (1621–78) English Metaphysical Poet
When people hear good music, it makes them homesick for something they never had, and never will have.
—E. W. Howe (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
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
There is no theory. You have only to listen. Pleasure is the law. I love music passionately. And because l love it, I try to free it from barren traditions that stifle it. It is a free art gushing forth, an open-air art boundless as the elements, the wind, the sky, the sea. It must never be shut in and become an academic art.
—Claude Debussy (1862-1918) French Composer
Rock and Roll: Music for the neck downwards.
—Keith Richards (b.1943) English Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Actor
I know only two tunes. One them is “Yankee Doodle” and the other isn’t.
—Ulysses S. Grant (1822–85) American Civil War General, Head of State
Music is the child of prayer, the companion of religion.
—Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand (1768–1848) French Writer, Academician, Statesman
Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings the whole day through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life march, as you will.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
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
Cherish your visions. Cherish your ideals. Cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment; of these, if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built.
—James Allen (1864–1912) British Philosophical Writer
Where words fail, music speaks.
—Hans Christian Andersen (1805–75) Danish Author, Poet, Short Story Writer
Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back and instead of bleeding he sings.
—Howard Gardner (b.1943) American Cognitive Psychologist
One and the same thing can at the same time be good, bad, and indifferent, e.g., music is good to the melancholy, bad to those who mourn, and neither good nor bad to the deaf.
—Baruch Spinoza (1632–77) Dutch Philosopher, Theologian
I don’t know anything about music. In my line you don’t have to.
—Elvis Presley (1935–77) American Musician, Singer, Songwriter, Actor
Do not allow the accents in the brass to produce space between the notes.
—Claude Debussy (1862-1918) French Composer
Music is love in search of a word.
—Colette (1873–1954) French Novelist, Performer
Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears form the eyes of woman.
—Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) German Composer, Musician