Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on art

Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing; a confusion of the real with the ideal never goes unpunished.

That is the true season of love, when we believe that we alone can love, that no one could ever have loved so before us, and that no one will love in the same way after us.

Divide and rule, a sound motto. Unite and lead, a better one.

If music be the food of love, play on.

William Shakespeare1564–1616Twelfth Night (1601), Act I, scene i.In context

• Love
• Music

Poetry is what gets lost in translation.

Robert Frost1874–1963

• Poetry

Music makes one feel so romantic⁠—at least it always gets on one’s nerves⁠—which is the same thing nowadays.

Oscar Wilde1854–1900

• Love
• Music