The Quotes canon
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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Charlie Parker3 quotes
If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. — Charlie Parker · 1955Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. — Charlie Parker · 1955They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art. — Charlie Parker · 1949Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart3 quotes
I cannot write in verse, for I am no poet. I cannot arrange the parts of speech with such art as to produce effects of light and shade, for I am no painter. Even by signs and gestures I cannot express my thoughts and feelings, for I am no dancer. But I can do so by means of sounds, for I am a musician. — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart · 1777I am happier when I have something to compose, for that, after all, is my sole delight and passion. — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart · 1777Melody is the essence of music. I compare a good melodist to a fine racer, and counterpoints to hack post-horses. — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart · 1786Samuel Pepys2 quotes
Musique and women I cannot but give way to, whatever my business is. — Samuel Pepys · 1666Musique is the thing of the world that I love most. — Samuel Pepys · 1666William Congreve2 quotes
Music alone with sudden charms can bind
The wand'ring sense, and calm the troubled mind. — William Congreve · 1703Music has charms to soothe a savage breast. — William Congreve · 1697William Shakespeare2 quotes
If music be the food of love, play on.
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken and so die. — William Shakespeare · 1602The 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 · 1598Aaron Copland1 quote
This whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, "Is there a meaning to music?" My answer to that would be, "Yes." And "Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?" My answer to that would be, "No." Therein lies the difficulty. — Aaron Copland · 1939Bob Marley1 quote
One good thing about music, when it hits you feel no pain. — Bob Marley · 1971Duke Ellington1 quote
Music is my mistress, and she plays second fiddle to no one. — Duke Ellington · 1973Frederick Delius1 quote
It is only that which cannot be expressed otherwise that is worth expressing in music. — Frederick Delius · 1920Frederick Douglass1 quote
Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. — Frederick Douglass · 1845Friedrich Nietzsche1 quote
Without music, life would be a mistake. — Friedrich Nietzsche · 1889Gustav Mahler1 quote
The symphony must be like the world; it must embrace everything. — Gustav Mahler · 1907Jelly Roll Morton1 quote
Jazz music is to be played sweet, soft, plenty rhythm. — Jelly Roll Morton · 1950John Cage1 quote
Which is more musical, a truck passing by a factory or a truck passing by a music school? — John Cage · 1961John Coltrane1 quote
I think the main thing a musician would like to do is to give a picture to the listener of the many wonderful things he knows of and senses in the universe. That's what music is to me-it's just another way of saying this is a big, beautiful universe we live in, that's been given to us, and here's an example of just how magnificent and encompassing it is. That’s what I would like to do. I think that’s one of the greatest things you can do in life, and we all try to do it in some way. The musician’s is through his music. — John Coltrane · 1962Joseph Addison1 quote
Music, the greatest good that mortals know,
And all of heaven we have below. — Joseph Addison · 1694Lester Bangs1 quote
Music, you know, true music, not just rock n roll, it chooses you. — Lester Bangs · 2000Louis Armstrong1 quote
All music is folk music. I ain't never heard no horse sing a song. — Louis ArmstrongMartin Luther1 quote
Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world. — Martin Luther · 1538Martin Mull1 quote
Writing about music is like dancing about architecture. — Martin Mull · 1979Michael Torke1 quote
Why waste money on psychotherapy when you can listen to the B Minor Mass? — Michael Torke · 1990Ornette Coleman1 quote
Many people apparently don't trust their reactions to art or to music unless there is a verbal explanation for it. In music the only thing that matters is whether you feel it or not. — Ornette Coleman · 1960Pico Iyer1 quote
In many a piece of music, it's the pause or the rest that gives the piece its beauty and its shape. — Pico Iyer · 2014Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky1 quote
Truly, I think I should go mad if it weren't for music. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky · 1877Richard Wagner1 quote
The oldest, truest, most beautiful organ of music, the origin to which alone our music owes its being, is the human voice. — Richard Wagner · 1851Theodor Adorno1 quote
Even the most insensitive hit song enthusiast cannot always escape the feeling that the child with a sweet tooth comes to know in the candy store. — Theodor Adorno · 1938Thomas Mann1 quote
For time is the medium of narration, as it is the medium of life. Both are inextricably bound up with it, as inextricably as are bodies in space. Similarly, time is the medium of music; music divides, measures, articulates time, and can shorten it, yet enhance its value, both at once. — Thomas Mann · 1924