Motivational Quotes

Music

The author's conviction on this day of New Year is that music begins to atrophy when it departs too far from the dance; that poetry begins to atrophy when it gets too far from music; but this must not be taken as implying that all good music is dance music or all poetry lyric. Bach and Mozart are never too far from physical movement.

- Pound, Ezra

Best Quotes about Music

Music and woman I cannot but give way to, whatever my business is.

Pepys, Samuel

True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time. My people are Americans and my time is today.

Gershwin, George

There once was a brainy baboon who always breathed down a bassoon for he said, It appears that in billions of years I shall certainly hit on a tune.

Pound, Ezra

Music is only love looking for words.

Durrell, Lawrence

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.

Herschel, Sir John

Music is the vernacular of the human soul.

Latham, Geoffrey

Don't play what's there, play what's not there.

Davis, Miles

She was one of those people who said I don't know anything about music, but I know what I like.

Beerbohm, Sir Max

Music is the shorthand of emotion.

Tolstoy, Count Leo

10.

A jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges.

Green, Benny

11.

Music is a discipline, and a mistress of order and good manners, she makes the people milder and gentler, more moral and more reasonable.

Martin Luther

12.

Pound, Ezra

13.

Music expresses that which can not be said and on which it is impossible to be silent

Hugo, Victor

14.

Their savage eyes turn'd to a modest gaze By the sweet power of music: therefore the poet Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones and floods; Since nought so stockish, hard and full of rage, But music for the time doth change his nature. The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils.

William Shakespeare

15.

If a thing isn't worth saying, you sing it.

Pierre Beaumarchais

16.

Music like religion, unconditionally brings in its train all the moral virtues to the heart it enters, even though that heart is not in the least worthy.

Jean Baptiste Montegut

17.

I don't mind what language an opera is sung in so long as it is a language I don't understand.

Sir Edward Appleton

18.

Difficult do you call it, Sir? I wish it were impossible.

Johnson, Samuel

19.

Berlioz says nothing in his music, but he says it magnificently.

Huneker, James G.

20.

It was called the Backstreet Market, and it was just like a local hangout. That was where the kids would drive their cars, hang out with their convertibles and listen to music. That's how we got Backstreet. We put Boys on it, because no matter how old we get, we'll always be boys.

Richardson, Kevin

21.

I wish Frank Sinatra would just shut up and sing.

Bacall, Lauren

22.

One is hardly sensible of fatigue while he marches to music.

Carlyle, Thomas

23.

People compose for many reasons: to become immortal; because the pianoforte happens to be open; because they want to become a millionaire; because of the praise of friends; because they have looked into a pair of beautiful eyes; for no reason whatsoever.

Schumann, Robert

24.

I like Beethoven, especially the poems.

Starr, Ringo

25.

Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth.

Beethoven, Ludwig Van

26.

Music is well said to be the speech of angels; in fact, nothing among the utterances allowed to man is felt to be so divine. It brings us near to the infinite.

Carlyle, Thomas

27.

Give me a laundry list and I'll set it to music.

Rossini, Gioacchino Antonio

28.

All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it.

Cocteau, Jean

29.

A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become.

Auden, W. H.

30.

My music is best understood by children and animals.

Igor Stravinsky

31.

Music when healthy, is the teacher of perfect order, and when depraved, the teacher of perfect disorder.

Ruskin, John

32.

A musicologist is a man who can read music but cannot hear it.

Beecham, Sir Thomas

33.

The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils. The motions of his spirit are dull as night, and his affections dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted.

Shakespeare, William

34.

Music should never be harmless.

Robertson, Robbie

35.

The opera is to music what a bawdy house is to a cathedral.

Mencken, H. L.

36.

If you look deep enough you will see music; the heart of nature being everywhere music.

Carlyle, Thomas

37.

Music of all the arts has the most influence on the passions and the legislator should give it the greatest encouragement.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

38.

Song is the heroics of speech.

Carlyle, Thomas

39.

My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary.

Martin Luther

40.

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.

Cosby, Bill

41.

Music is a readily available, highly effective tool that you use to improve both your cognitive and physical abilities.

Winter, Arthur

42.

Canned music is like audible wallpaper.

Cooke, Alistair

43.

Without Elvis, none of us could have made it.

Holly, Buddy

44.

A symphony is a stage play with the parts written for instruments instead of for actors.

Wilson, Colin

45.

I can't listen to that much Wagner. I start getting the urge to conquer Poland.

Woody Allen

46.

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter.

Keats, John

47.

The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking,'Is there a meaning to music?'My answer would be,'Yes.'And'Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?'My answer to that would be,'No.'

Aaron Copland

48.

Music, moody food of us that trade in love.

William Shakespeare

49.

When Mozart was composing at the end of the eighteenth century, the city of Vienna was so quiet that fire alarms could be given verbally, by a shouting watchman mounted on top of St. Stefan's Cathedral. In twentieth-century society, the noise level is such that it keeps knocking our bodies out of tune and out of their natural rhythms. This ever-increasing assault of sound upon our ears, minds, and bodies adds to the stress load of civilized beings trying to live in a highly complex environment.

Halpern, Steven

50.

If we were all determined to play the first violin we should never have an ensemble. Therefore, respect every musician in his proper place.

Schumann, Robert