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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Music
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“How light the touches are that kiss The music from the chords of life!”
Coventry Patmore (1823–1896) said by 1896 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I never really had the intention of being a rock 'n' roller. It's just that all of my best friends were great musicians and they felt sorry for me so they had me. (Much Music 1991).”
Anthony Kiedis (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The existence of sexual energy is such an every-day part of life. It's such a natural aspect of life. That we end up relating to without any shame. (Much Music 1991).”
Anthony Kiedis (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Music that I really love and believe in and think is extraordinarily honest and beautiful doesn't always become popular. (Oct, 1994 interview).”
Anthony Kiedis (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Trying to command life without studying one's own mind is like trying to play the piano without studying music.”
Vernon Howard (1918–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The music our collisions make!”
Aaron Weiss wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In poetry there are two giants, rough Homer and fine Shakespere. In music likewise we have two giants, Beethoven, the thinker, and the superthinker Berlioz.”
Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881) first seen 1872 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Vladimir Stassov, October 18, 1872; Oskar von Riesemann (trans. Paul England) Moussorgsky (1929) p. 107.
“I had no idea how much music and singing really means to people, and in my own tiny way to be a part of that is very humbling and very sweet, and and I feel very honored. ... I have a great appreciation for this, in every ways and a new understanding, and I'm just as amazed as anyone else.”
Ysabella Brave (born 1979) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Response to a question on whether her increasing fame has changed her in any way. "ysabellabravetalk #1" (9 March 2007)
“If I had been asked this about a year/year-and-a-half ago, I would have said "You can't trust everybody!" But now that I've been in the music industry, and famous, and on YouTube and stuff: "You can't trust everybody, at all.”
Ysabella Brave (born 1979) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Trust — what's the secret?" (27 January 2008)
“I never loved nobody fully Always one foot on the ground And by protecting my heart truly I got lost in the sounds I hear in my mind All these voices I hear in my mind all these words I hear in my mind all this music And it breaks my heart It breaks my heart...”
Regina Spektor (born 1980) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Music bypasses the intellect, it makes you laugh, makes you cry, makes you want to dance, makes you want to have sex.”
Siobhan Fahey (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no incidental music to the dramas of real life.”
Sax Rohmer (1883–1959) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu (1920), ch. ix
“When Music, heavenly maid, was young, While yet in early Greece she sung.”
William Collins (1721–1759) said by 1759 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O Music! sphere-descended maid, Friend of Pleasure, Wisdom's aid!”
William Collins (1721–1759) said by 1759 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Films and gramophone records, music, books and buildings show clearly how vigorously a man's life and work go on after his death, whether we feel it or not, whether we are aware of the individual names or not. There is no such thing as death according to our view!”
Martin Bormann (1900–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in "The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations" - Page 446 - by Robert Andrews - Reference - 1993.
“Like the East Side tenement, our house was seldom without the sound of music or laughter or questions being asked or stories being told.”
Harpo Marx (1888–1964) said by 1964 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All those rappers, they're the only glamorous people working in music now. The rock bands are rather drab, even the good ones. You definitely don't want to look at them. But some of those R&B people are very good.”
Bryan Ferry (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“With respect to excellence of Style and Composition, it may perhaps be said that to practised ears the most pleasing Music is such as has the merit of novelty, added to refinement, and ingenious contrivance; and to the ignorant, such as is most familiar and common.”
Charles Burney (1726–1814) first seen 1776 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A General History of Music ([1776-89] 1935) vol. 1, page 22
“African music, though very old, is always being rediscovered in the West.”
Miriam Makeba (1932–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The music that of common speech but slanted so that each detail sounds unexpected as a sharp inserted in a simple scale.”
Dana Gioia (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The soul of man is like the rolling world, One half in day, the other dipt in night; The one has music and the flying cloud, The other, silence and the wakeful stars.”
Alexander Smith (1829–1867) said by 1867 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I cannot * * * say that Pan Passeth Apollo in music manyfold; Praisé Sir Thopas for a noble tale, And scorn the story that the Knighté told.”
Thomas Wyatt (1503–1542) said by 1542 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Henry Morley, Burlesque Plays and Poems (London: George Routledge and Sons, 1885) p. 5. See also American Notes and Queries (28 September 1889) p. 257
“The music of the scythes that glide and leap, The young men whistling as their great arms sweep, And all the perfume and sweet sense of sleep,The weary butterflies that droop their wings, The dreamy nightingale that hardly sings, And all the lassitude of happy things,Is mingling with the warm and pulsing blood That gushes through my veins a languid flood, And feeds my spirit as the sap a bud.”
Edmund Gosse (1849–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Because we live in such a mind-dominated culture, most modern art, architecture, music, and literature are devoid of beauty, of inner essence, with very few exceptions.”
Eckhart Tolle (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If she but smile, the crystal calm shall break In music, sweeter than it ever gave, As when a breeze breathes o'er some sleeping lake, And laughs in every wave.”
Bayard Taylor (1825–1878) first seen 1850 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Return of the Goddess" (1850), later published as the Preface to The Poet's Journal (1863); also in The Poetical Works of Bayard Taylor (1907), p. 103.
“To the seeker after the new, or the sensational, to those who expect a sinister frisson from modern music, it is my melancholy duty to point out that all the bomb throwing and guillotining has already taken place.”
Constant Lambert (1905–1951) said by 1951 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Music, from being an ordered succession of sounds, has become a matter of "sonorities", and anyone who can produce a brightly coloured brick of unusual shape is henceforth hailed as an architect.”
Constant Lambert (1905–1951) said by 1951 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Appalling Popularity of Music.”
Constant Lambert (1905–1951) said by 1951 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Rhapsody: You know, you both really ought to have more respect for music. It can be a very powerful weapon, as well as whatever else you need it to be." Grunthor: That's true; my singin' voice can be quite good at inflictin' pain. At least that's what the troops use ta tell me.”
Elizabeth Haydon (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The words, the style always reflects a habit of mind. And the habit of mind comes in from a different angle. The habit of mind uses the colloquial here and uses the joke there. And then creates some discordant music and then something strange and wonderful happens. And you see things differently. You see a different light is shed on it.”
John Leonard (critic) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Bill Moyers, Now, PBS (28 November 2003)
“Ah, me! the vision has vanished— The music has died away!”
William Wetmore Story (1819–1895) first seen 1858 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Cleopatra" (1858), Vol. I, p. 129.
“A great work of art is one that truly moves and inspires you. You yourself must be moved. Don't look at art with others' eyes. Don't listen to music with others' ears. You must react to art with your own feelings, your own heart and mind.”
Daisaku Ikeda (1928–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I did miss the music a bit - but only in the wings, when I was waiting to go on. It seemed dreadfully quiet, rather unnerving. But the wonderful thing was that one didn't have to be quite so obsessive about one's health, and one's voice.”
Elaine Paige (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon; The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a rag-time tune; Back of the bar, in a solo game, sat Dangerous Dan McGrew, And watching his luck was his light-o'-love, the lady that’s known as Lou.”
Robert Service (1874–1958) said by 1958 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Though music is the chief excellence of the Neapolitans, Naples has produced some good Painters. Luca Giordano, and Salvator Rosa, were both of them born here : the latter, to judge by a ridiculous anecdote that is told of him, was a man of wit, as well as a painter.”
Peter Beckford (1643–1710) said by 1710 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Who can undo What time hath done? who can win back the wind? Beckon lost music from a broken lute? Renew the redness of a last year's rose? Or dig the sunken sunset from the deep?”
Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton (1831–1891) first seen 1869 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Orval, or The Fool of Time, Second Epoch, in Orval, or The Fool of Time and Other Imitations and Paraphrases (London: Chapman & Hall, 1869), p. 39.
“Homosexual music for catholic girls.”
Jaani Peuhu (born 1978) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Although it must be said it would be really nice if people listened to us because they like our music and not because we come from Finland.”
Jaani Peuhu (born 1978) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Crooning. A reprehensible form of singing that established itself in light entertainment music in about the 1930s. It recommended itself at first to would-be singers without voices who were unable to acquire an adequate technique and later to a large public because anything, however inartistic, is likely to become popular if only it is done often enough by a large enough number of people.”
Eric Blom (1888–1959) said by 1959 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Music’s playin’ up and down the block Mostly Christian, Blues, Country, Folk, and Southern Rock It’s our little piece of paradise way out here in the woods There is always somethin’ goin’ on down in the trailerhood.”
Toby Keith (1961–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Computers are no more able to create information than iPods are capable of creating music.”
Robert J. Marks II (born 1950) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in: Stephen C. Meyer, Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design, HarperOne (2009) p. 292
“Sometimes it makes your hips move. Sometimes it makes you rock your head. Sometimes it helps you just kick back and relax and soak it in. But no matter what form it comes in, you know this music always comes straight from the heart. You know you’re listening to someone who’s found her own unique voice, and isn’t afraid to show it to the world. And these women are perfect examples of just that.”
Michelle Obama (born 1964) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statements at "I'm every woman: The History of Women in Soul" event (06 March 2014)
“This is a dream come true. I now own all my music, my videos, my photos, and my unreleased tracks.”
Taylor Swift (born 1989) first seen 2025 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Taylor Swift Regains Control of Master Recordings pitchfork (May 30, 2025)
“Music starts playing like the end of a sad movie. It's the kind of ending you don't really wanna see. 'Cause it's tragedy and it'll only bring you down. Now I don't know what to be without you around.”
Taylor Swift (born 1989) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do you recall what was revealed The day the music died?”
Don McLean (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So come on, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick Jack Flash sat on a candlestick 'Cause fire is the Devil's only friend Oh, and as I watched him on the stage My hands were clenched in fists of rage No angel born in hell Could break that Satan's spell And as the flames climbed high into the night To light the sacrificial rite I saw Satan laughing with delight The day the music died.”
Don McLean (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I enjoyed, and I tried to soak up and learn everything as fast as I could from doing any kind of music. It's good to have a gig. If you're a musician, it's good to be working. I love doing all of it, but Marry Me is my baby, St. Vincent is my child.”
St. Vincent (musician) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You don’t ever get the sense that she's making music to pander to anyone. I think you always get her absolute best attempt at her true vision whenever you get a Kate Bush record.”
St. Vincent (musician) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nun 1: Sir, it is only a play... with music. Do not distress yourself.”
Peter Greenaway (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nun 2: (Very quietly) Sir, be grateful for the music. Most of us die in silence.”
Peter Greenaway (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source