Music Thoughts

We love music and I think you do too - it can soothe the soul as well as make us laugh, cry and dance (not always at the same time...)  So welcome to a page of quotations on music that intrigue and fascinate us.  We think you'll enjoy them as well.

The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, 'Is there a meaning to music?'  My answer would be, 'Yes.'

And 'Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?'  My answer to that would be, 'No'.

Aaron Copeland (1900 - 1990)  

An intellectual snob is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture and not think of the Lone Ranger.

Dan Rather (1931 - )

I don't know anything about music.  In my line you don't have to.

Elvis Presley (1935 - 1977)

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

Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)

Without music, life would be a mistake.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844 - 1900)

We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.

Decca Recording Company UK,  rejecting the Beatles in 1962

The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.  There's also a negative side.

Hunter S Thompson (1937 - 2005)

Interesting note: According to one researcher this quote, which has been altered according to context to apply to other areas of competitive human endeavour besides the music business, was indeed penned by Hunter S Thompson but it was originally this:

"The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason."  The researcher doesn't know who came up with the perfect punch line at the end though!  

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.

Arnold Jacob ('Red') Auerbach (1917  -  )

Don't play what's there, play what's not there.

Miles Davis (1926 - 1991)

All Music is important if it comes from the heart

Carlos Santana (1947 -  )

All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff.

Frank Zappa (1940 - 1993)

I haven't understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it.

Igor Stravinsky (1882 - 1971)

Music hath the charm to sooth a savage beast, but I'd try a revolver first.

Josh Billings (1818 - 1885)

Extraordinary how potent cheap music is.

Noel Coward (1899 - 1973)

Music was invented to confirm human loneliness.

Lawrence Durrell (1912 - 1990)

Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back and instead of bleeding he sings.

Edward Gardner (1912 - 2001)

I think music in itself is healing.  It's an explosive expression of humanity.  It's something we are all touched by.  No matter what culture we're from everyone loves music.

Billy Joel (1949 -  )

Wagner's music is better than it sounds.

Bill Nye (1955 -   )

I think my fans will follow me into our combined old age.  Real musicians and real fans stay together for a long, long time.

Bonnie Rait (1949 -   )

The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.  The motions of his spirit are dull as night, and his affections as dark as Erebus.  Let no such man be trusted.

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

Most people are so absurdly unreasonable.  They always want one to be perfectly dumb at the very moment one is longing to be absolutely deaf.

Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)