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Quotes about music

99 quotes from 76 people

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Any time I make a record it’s followed by a painting period. It’s good crop rotation.
Joni Mitchellborn 1943Woman of Heart and Mind: A Life Story (2003)
- Art
Rather than trying to put an end to Eminem or some other rapper, politicians should think about why they’re rapping. It’s easier to try to censor some kid who’s swearing about poverty than it is to stop the poverty.
Willie Nelsonborn 1933Playboy interview, November 2002.
- Politics
I’m going to spend my life writing poems, turning them into music that will affect people and touch their hearts. I’m going to write the songs that people can’t write for themselves.
Stevie Nicksborn 1948Kia Makarechi, “Stevie Nicks On Fleetwood Mac’s Reunion Tour, Rihanna, Kanye West & Her Early Years In Music”, Huffington Post, 3 December 2012
- Writing
Without music, life would be a mistake.
Friedrich Nietzsche1844–1900Twilight of the Idols (1889), “Maxims and Arrows,” § 1.33
Is Wagner a human being at all? Is he not rather a disease? He contaminates everything he touches⁠—he has made music sick.
Friedrich Nietzsche1844–1900Der Fall Wagner (1888)
- Clever Jabs
I should only believe in a God that would know how to dance.
Friedrich Nietzsche1844–1900Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883–1885), First Part, VIIIn context
- Dancing
- God
I believe in kindness. Also in mischief. Also in singing, especially when singing is not necessarily prescribed.
MOMary Oliver1935–2019Evidence (2009), “Evidence”
- Virtue
Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul
Plato429–349 BCThe Republic (c. 375 BC), Book IIIIn context
- Education
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells
Edgar Allan Poe1809–1849The Bells (1849)In context
He made a single instrument speak a language of infinity. He could often sum up, in ten lines that a child could play, poems of a boundless exaltation, dramas of unequalled power.
George Sand1804–1876Histoire de ma vie (1854-55), on Chopin’s Preludes
Drum on your drums, batter on your banjos,
sob on the long cool winding saxophones.
Go to it, O jazzmen.
Carl Sandburg1878–1967“Jazz Fantasia” (1920)
The effect of music is so very much more powerful and penetrating than is that of the other arts, for these others speak only of the shadow, but music of the essence.
Arthur Schopenhauer1788–1860The World as Will and Representation (1819; 1844; 1859), Vol. I, Ch. II
- Art
In the largest sense, every work of art is protest. … A lullaby is a propaganda song and any three-year-old knows it. … A hymn is a controversial song — sing one in the wrong church: you’ll find out. …
Pete Seeger1919–2014Pop Chronicles, Show 33—Revolt of the Fat Angel: American musicians respond to the British invaders. Part 1, interview recorded 2.14.1968.
- Art
The easiest way to avoid wrong notes is to never open your mouth and sing. What a mistake that would be.
Pete Seeger1919–2014How Can I Keep from Singing: Pete Seeger (1981), p. 95
If music be the food of love, play on.
William Shakespeare1564–1616Twelfth Night (1601), Act I, scene i.In context
- Love