Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,161,747 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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“Last year, a girl was raped by two wastes of sperm and eggs while they sang the lyrics to our song "Polly". I have a hard time carrying on knowing there are plankton like that in our audience.”
Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Don't download this song Even Lars Ulrich knows it's wrong. (you can just ask him!)”
Lars Ulrich (born 1963) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Weird Al Yankovic, "Don't download this song," from Straight Outta Lynwood (2006).
“Lady Gaga: "My fellow hardworking female art student. Just like me, her song [Paper Planes] took almost a full year to climb to the top. But we worked hard, and we did it.”
“Only God singing this song of you... makes true light... somehow possible.”
“You do not want to hear your voice in every song, as it gets monotonous. So, it’s important to have the right kind of balance.”
Shreya Ghoshal (born 1984) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fierce warres and faithful loves shall moralize my song.”
Edmund Spenser (1552–1599) said by 1599 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“I never heard the old song of Percy and Douglas that I found not my heart moved more than with a trumpet.”
Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586) said by 1586 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“And stretched metre of an antique song.”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) said by 1616 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“What song the Sirens sang, or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women.”
Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682) said by 1682 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“In discourse more sweet; For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense. Others apart sat on a hill retir'd, In thoughts more elevate, and reason'd high Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate, Fix'd fate, free-will, foreknowledge absolute; And found no end, in wand'ring mazes lost.”
John Milton (1608–1674) said by 1674 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Still govern thou my song, Urania, and fit audience find, though few.”
John Milton (1608–1674) said by 1674 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“I will tell you now What never yet was heard in tale or song, From old or modern bard, in hall or bower.”
John Milton (1608–1674) said by 1674 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“And heaven had wanted one immortal song.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“A needless Alexandrine ends the song, That like a wounded snake drags its slow length along.”
Alexander Pope (1688–1744) said by 1744 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Friend to my life, which did not you prolong, The world had wanted many an idle song.”
Alexander Pope (1688–1744) said by 1744 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“That not in fancy's maze he wander'd long, But stoop'd to truth, and moraliz'd his song.”
Alexander Pope (1688–1744) said by 1744 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“But touch me, and no minister so sore; Whoe'er offends at some unlucky time Slides into verse, and hitches in a rhyme, Sacred to ridicule his whole life long, And the sad burden of some merry song.”
Alexander Pope (1688–1744) said by 1744 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Just are the ways of Heaven: from Heaven proceed The woes of man; Heaven doom'd the Greeks to bleed,-- A theme of future song!”
Alexander Pope (1688–1744) said by 1744 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Soft as some song divine thy story flows.”
Alexander Pope (1688–1744) said by 1744 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Unlike my subject now shall be my song; It shall be witty, and it sha'n't be long.”
Earl Of Chesterfield (1694–1773) said by 1773 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“That mighty orb of song, The divine Milton.”
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) said by 1850 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Fools are my theme, let satire be my song.”
Lord Byron (1788–1824) said by 1824 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Dance and Provençal song and sunburnt mirth! Oh for a beaker full of the warm South, Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene! With beaded bubbles winking at the brim, And purple-stainèd mouth.”
John Keats (1795–1821) said by 1821 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“A song for our banner! The watchword recall Which gave the Republic her station: "United we stand, divided we fall!" It made and preserves us a nation! The union of lakes, the union of lands, The union of States none can sever, The union of hearts, the union of hands, And the flag of our Union forever!”
George P. Morris (1802–1864) said by 1864 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Short swallow-flights of song, that dip Their wings in tears, and skim away.”
Alfred Tennyson (active around 1809) bartlett, Public domain source
“It came upon the midnight clear, That glorious song of old.”
Edmund H. Sears (1810–1876) said by 1876 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever; Do noble things, not dream them, all day long: And so make life, death, and that vast forever One grand sweet song.”
Charles Kingsley (1819–1875) said by 1875 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“The message in the song is meant to encourage each Zimbabwean to play a part in moving our nation forward.”
Shingisai Suluma (born 1971) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Shingisai Suluma gives new hope for Zim. The Herald, 3 December 2017.
“Singing is something I always wanted to do. Love Mission is a song that has been playing on my mind for the last two years.”
Janet Kirina first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Girl on mission. The Standard, 30 December 2011.
“Crave the tuneful nightingale to help you with her lay, The ousel and the throstlecock, chief music of our May.”
Michael Drayton (1563–1631) first seen 1593 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Shepherd’s Garland (1593), eclogue 3, l. 17
“According to the generation is the music thereof.”
Isaac Leib Peretz (1852–1915) first seen 1901 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Gilgul fun a Nign, 1901. Alle Verk, vi. 73.
“The duty of the words is to say just as much as the music has left unsaid and no more.”
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) first seen 1902 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an article in The Vocalist magazine, 1902; cited from Ursula Vaughan Williams RVW (1964) p. 400.
“The art of music above all the other arts is the expression of the soul of a nation.”
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: National Music (1934) p. 123.
“In the next world, I shan't be doing music, with all the striving and disappointments. I shall be being it.”
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) said by 1958 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Said to Sylvia Townsend Warner two weeks before his death; published in William Maxwell (ed.) The Letters of Sylvia Townsend Warner (1982) p. 168.
“It never seems to occur to people that a man might just want to write a piece of music.”
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) said by 1958 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Michael Kennedy The Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams ([1964] 1992) p. 302. He reportedly said this to Roy Douglas regarding whether his Symphony No.6 was meant to be programmatic.
“Music, being identical with heaven, isn't a thing of momentary thrills, or even hourly ones. It's a condition of eternity.”
Gustav Holst (1874–1934) first seen 1914 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to W G Whittaker, 1914, quoted in Paul Holmes Holst p. 62.
“The enormity of the universe revealed by science cannot readily be grasped by the human brain, but the music of The Planets enables the mind to acquire some comprehension of the vastness of space where rational understanding fails.”
Gustav Holst (1874–1934) first seen 1874 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Michael Short, Gustav Holst 1874-1934: A Centenary Documentation
“I am now satisfied that the future music of this country must be founded upon what are called negro melodies. This must be the real foundation of any serious and original school of composition to be developed in the United States.”
Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) first seen 1893 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interviewed by James Creelman, New York Herald, May 21, 1893.
“The music of the people is like a rare and lovely flower growing amidst encroaching weeds. Thousands pass it, while others trample it under foot, and thus the chances are that it will perish before it is seen by the one discriminating spirit who will prize it above all else. The fact that no one has as yet arisen to make the most of it does not prove that nothing is there.”
Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) first seen 1895 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Music in America", Harper's Monthly Magazine, February 1895.
“Formalism is music that people don’t understand at first hearing.”
Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953) first seen 1917 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Boris Schwarz Music and Musical Life in Soviet Russia, 1917-1970 (1972) p. 115.
“Aye, ye were blest with folly. Who may tell What strange conceits upon the earth were sown And gender'd by the fond garrulity Of your aereal music? Scatter'd notes, Half heard, half fancied by the erring sense Of man, on which they fell like downy seeds Sown by autumnal winds, grew up, and teem'd With plenteous madness.”
Hartley Coleridge (1796–1849) said by 1849 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“With all your music, loud and lustily, With every dainty joy of sight and smell, Prepare a banquet meet to entertain The Lord of Thunder, that hath set you free From old oppression.”
Hartley Coleridge (1796–1849) said by 1849 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That heavenly music! what is it I hear? The notes of the harpers ring sweet in mine ear. And, see, soft unfolding those portals of gold, The King all arrayed in his beauty behold!”
William Augustus Muhlenberg (1796–1877) first seen 1826 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: I would not live alway (published 1826), reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“We can say that the United States runs the world like the Taliban ran Afghanistan. Cuba is dealt with like a woman caught outside not wearing her burkha. Horrific sanctions are imposed on Iraq in the manner of banning music, dancing, and kite-flying in Kabul. Jean-Bertrand Aristide is banished from Haiti like the religious police whipping a man whose beard is not the right length.”
William Blum (1933–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Music would probably go. A lot of art would. That’s what I’m saying – I’m really into comics and movies and video games, and I don’t want to give that stuff up. At the same time, I think it’s filling the void for the stuff we’re missing.”
Andy Hurley (born 1980) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If I was a furniture mover, I’d probably volunteer to put out the chairs at church on Sunday. If I was a barista, I’d probably volunteer to make coffees in the church foyer on Sunday. Music is what I have in my hand, so it’s how I can serve.”
Brooke Fraser (born 1983) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Brooke Ligertwood on her Calling to Worship Music and her new Signature Martin Guitar Guitar girl magazine (May 30, 2023)
“I frequently hear music in the heart of noise.”
George Gershwin (1898–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Isaac Goldberg; published in Joan Peyser The Memory of All That (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993) p. 80.
“My people are American, my time is today…music must repeat the thought and aspirations of the times.”
George Gershwin (1898–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Merle Armitage Accent on America (New York: E. Weyhe, 1944) p. 292.
“I like to think of music as an emotional science.”
George Gershwin (1898–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Seated one day at the organ, I was weary and ill at ease, And my fingers wandered idly Over the noisy keys. I do not know what I was playing, Or what I was dreaming then; But I struck one chord of music, Like the sound of a great Amen.”
Adelaide Anne Procter (1825–1864) said by 1864 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source