24 inspirational quotes about classical music
From scientists and philosophers to poets and playwrights, some of the greatest minds in history were touched and inspired by classical music. Here's a selection of their inspiring words.
-
1. Tony Bennett quote
Tony Bennett: ‘In the 1920s and ’30s, there was a renaissance in music that was the equivalent of the artistic Renaissance. Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer and others created the best songs ever written. These are classics... This is classical music’
-
2. Dizzy Gillespie quote
Dizzy Gillespie quote
-
3. Barack Obama arts quote
Barack Obama arts quote
-
4. Albert Einstein
"I know that the most joy in my life has come to me from my violin." - Albert Einstein
-
5. St. Augustine
St Augustine: "To sing is to pray twice."
-
-
6. Plato
Plato: "Rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul."
-
7. John Dryden
John Dryden: "What passion cannot music raise and quell!"
-
8. John Milton
John Milton: "Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie."
-
9. Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou: "Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness."
-
10. Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen: "Where words fail, music speaks."
-
-
11. Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy: "Music is the shorthand of emotion."
-
12. John Keats
John Keats: "Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter. Therefore, ye soft pipes, play on."
-
13. Heinrich Heine
Heinrich Heine: "When words leave off, music begins."
-
14. George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw: "Hell is full of musical amateurs."
-
15. Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley: "After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music."
-
-
16. B.B. King
The beautiful thing about learning is that no-one can take it away from you." - B.B. King
-
17. Jean Paul Richter
Jean Paul Richter: "Music is the poetry of the air."
-
18. Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo: "Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent."
-
19. Confucius
Confucius: "Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without."
-
20. Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche: "Without music, life would be a mistake."
-
-
21. Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde: "Music is the art which is most nigh to tears and memory."
-
22. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: "Music is the universal language of mankind."
-
23. T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot: "Music heard so deeply / That is not heard at all, but you are / The music / While the music lasts."
-
24. Robert Browning
Robert Browning: "There is no truer truth obtainable by man than that which comes of music."
-
25. Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein: "I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music."
-
-
26. Benjamin Disraeli
Benjamin Disraeli: "Nature has given us two ears but only one mouth."
-
27. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: "I call architecture frozen music."
