Quotes About Notes

On this feast of St. Cecilia, patron saint of music, some quotes that attempt to explain its essense and power.

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Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast,
To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.

William Congreve (1670-1729)

Music's golden tongue
Flatter'd to tears this aged man and poor.

John Keats (1795-1821)

O Music! sphere-descended maid,
Friend of Pleasure, Wisdom's aid!

William Collins (1721-1759)

Music is well said to be the speech of angels.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)

If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie.

John Milton (1608-1674)

There is no truer truth obtainable
By Man than comes of music.

Robert Browning (1812-1889)

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.

Aldous Huxley (1894 -1963)

Ah, music. A magic beyond all we do here!

J. K. Rowling

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