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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“When she had passed, it seemed like the ceasing of exquisite music.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Henry W. Longfellow
“There be none of Beauty's daughters With a magic like thee; And like music on the waters Is thy sweet voice to me.”
Lord Byron (1788–1824) first seen 1816 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Stanzas for Music, st. 1 (1816).
“The light of love, the purity of grace, The mind, the music breathing from her face, 19 The heart whose softness harmonized the whole,— And oh, that eye was in itself a soul!”
Lord Byron (1788–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Who hears music feels his solitude Peopled at once.”
Robert Browning (1812–1889) first seen 1871 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Balaustion's Adventure, line 323 (1871).
“There is no truer truth obtainable By Man than comes of music.”
Robert Browning (1812–1889) said by 1889 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He murmurs near the running brooks A music sweeter than their own.”
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Is there not An art, a music, and a stream of words That shalt be life, the acknowledged voice of life?”
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I listened, motionless and still; And, as I mounted up the hill, The music in my heart I bore, Long after it was heard no more.”
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Where music dwells Lingering and wandering on as loth to die, Like thoughts whose very sweetness yieldeth proof That they were born for immortality.”
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Soft is the music that would charm forever; The flower of sweetest smell is shy and lowly.”
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Bright gem instinct with music, vocal spark.”
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When his veering gait And every motion of his starry train Seem governed by a strain Of music, audible to him alone.”
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Music is well said to be the speech of angels.”
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) first seen 1852 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Opera (1852).
“Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie.”
John Milton (1608–1674) first seen 1630 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Arcades (1630-1634), line 68
“Oh sir! I must not tell my age. They say women and music should never be dated.”
Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774) said by 1774 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Music tells no truths.”
Philip James Bailey (1816–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And waste their music on the savage race.”
Edward Young (1683–1765) said by 1765 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Music, the greatest good that mortals know, And all of heaven we have below.”
Joseph Addison (1672–1719) first seen 1692 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Song for St. Cecilia's Day (1692), st. 3
“Music religious heat inspires, It wakes the soul, and lifts it high, And wings it with sublime desires, And fits it to bespeak the Deity.”
Joseph Addison (1672–1719) first seen 1692 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Song for St. Cecilia's Day (1692), st. 4
“When time itself shall be no more, And all things in confusion hurl'd, Music shall then exert it's power, And sound survive the ruins of the world: Then saints and angels shall agree In one eternal jubilee: All Heaven shall echo with their hymns divine, And God himself with pleasure see The whole creation in a chorus join.”
Joseph Addison (1672–1719) first seen 1692 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Song for St. Cecilia's Day (1692)
“A man that has a taste of music, painting, or architecture, is like one that has another sense, when compared with such as have no relish of those arts.”
Joseph Addison (1672–1719) first seen 1711 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No. 93 (16 June 1711)
“Sweet is the breath of vernal shower, The bee's collected treasures sweet, Sweet music's melting fall, but sweeter yet The still small voice of gratitude.”
Thomas Gray (1716–1771) first seen 1769 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ode for Music (1769), V, line 8
“We join ourselves to no party that does not carry the flag, and keep step to the music of the Union.”
Rufus Choate (1799–1859) first seen 1855 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to the Whig Convention, Worcester (1 October 1855).
“Everyman is full of music, but it is not everyman that knows how to bring it out.”
Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887) said by 1887 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Music is the deepest of the arts and deep beneath the arts.”
E. M. Forster (1879–1970) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harvard University Department of Music, Music and Criticism, A Symposium (May 1947; published 1948, p. 11)
“Since I am coming to that holy room, Where, with thy choir of saints forevermore, I shall be made thy music; as I come I tune the instrument here at the door, And what I must do then, think here before.”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1623 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hymn to God My God, in My Sickness (1623), stanza 1
“Poetry Fetter'd. Fetters the Human Race. Nations are Destroy'd, or Flourish, in proportion as Their Poetry, Painting, and Music are Destroy'd or Flourish!”
William Blake (1757–1827) said by 1827 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She wondered what had caused the bald pilgrims to vomit so uniformly, and whether they had vomited together in a single, well-orchestrated heave (to music perhaps, to the rhythm of a bus bhajan), or separately, one at a time.”
Arundhati Roy (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness – and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe.”
Arundhati Roy (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This sly conflation of America's culture, music, literature, the breathtaking physical beauty of the land, the ordinary pleasures of ordinary people with criticism of the U.S. government’s foreign policy (about which, thanks to America's “free press”, sadly most Americans know very little) is... extremely effective strategy.”
Arundhati Roy (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Besides, time, which despoils castles, enriches verses . . . Time broadens the scope of verses and I know of some which, like music, are everything for all men.”
Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) first seen 1949 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Averroës' Search" (1949)
“Music, states of happiness, mythology, faces belabored by time, certain twilights and certain places try to tell us something, or have said something we should not have missed, or are about to say something; this imminence of a revelation which does not occur is, perhaps, the aesthetic phenomenon.”
Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Wall and the Books" ["La muralla y los libros"] (1950)
“Music's golden tongue Flatter'd to tears this aged man and poor.”
John Keats (1795–1821) said by 1821 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The music, yearning like a God in pain.”
John Keats (1795–1821) said by 1821 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Was it a vision, or a waking dream? Fled is that music: — Do I wake or sleep?”
John Keats (1795–1821) said by 1821 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In my music, I'm trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason it's difficult is because I'm changing all the time.”
Charles Mingus (1922–1979) first seen 1979 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement to Nat Hentoff , as quoted in California Rock, California Sound : The Music of Los Angeles and Southern California (1979) by Anthony Fawcett, p. 56; also in “Jazz : Beyond Time and Nations” in The Nat Hentoff …
“It just doesn’t attract me. I’m of a certain period, a certain evolution. I hear music differently [...] I mean, for me, comparing electric bass to acoustic bass is sacrilege.”
Bill Evans (1929–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview from the late 1970s, as cited by Ashley Kahn "Miles Davis and Bill Evans: Miles and Bill in Black & White", JazzTimes (September 2001)
“A heart without music is like beauty without melancholy.”
Emil Cioran (1911–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Music is everything. God himself is nothing more than an acoustic hallucination.”
Emil Cioran (1911–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is not heartrending is superfluous, at least in music.”
Emil Cioran (1911–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When we have no further desire to show ourselves, we take refuge in music, the Providence of the abulic.”
Emil Cioran (1911–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That's how I see my audience, a surrogate affection machine. It doesn't necessarily have to be comedy, either. It could be drama or music, anything where you want that love back.”
Eddie Izzard (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.”
George Eliot (1819–1880) said by 1880 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So to live is heaven: To make undying music in the world, Breathing a beauteous order that controls With growing sway the growing life of man.”
George Eliot (1819–1880) said by 1880 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Most artists, whether in religion, music, literature, painting, or what not, are shopkeepers in disguise. They hide their shop as much as they can, and keep pretending that it does not exist, but they are essentially shopkeepers and nothing else.”
Samuel Butler (novelist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is curious that money, which is the most valuable thing in life, exceptis excipiendis, should be the most fatal corrupter of music, literature, painting and all the arts. As soon as any art is pursued with a view to money, then farewell, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, all hope of genuine good work.”
Samuel Butler (novelist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The greatest poets never write poetry. The Homer|Homers and William Shakespeare|Shakespeares are not the greatest — they are only the greatest that we can know. And so with George Frideric Handel|Handel among musicians. For the highest poetry, whether in music or literature, is ineffable — it must be felt from one person to another, it cannot be articulated.”
Samuel Butler (novelist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I should like to like Robert Schumann|Schumann's music better than I do; I dare say I could make myself like it better if I tried; but I do not like having to try to make myself like things; I like things that make me like them at once and no trying at all.”
Samuel Butler (novelist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every man's work, whether it be literature or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself, and the more he tries to conceal himself the more clearly will his character appear in spite of him.”
Samuel Butler (novelist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Their heavenly harps a lower strain began, And in soft music mourn the fall of man.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) first seen 1677 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The State of Innocence (1677), Act V, sc. i