The Best Quotes About Music

Updated June 18, 2019 914 votes 45 voters 3.9k views88 items

List RulesMust be a famous or well-known quote. Vote for the music sayings that strongly resonate with you, and downvote any you didn't like.

A list of the best music quotes and sayings, including the names of each speaker or author when available. This list is sorted by popularity, so only the most famous music quotes are at the top. The authors of these historic music quotes are displayed next to each quote, so if you see one you like be sure to check out other inspirational music quotes from that same writer.

This list answers the questions, "What are the best quotes about music?" and "What are inspirational music quotes?"

This list includes notable music quotes by various authors, writers, playwrights, speakers, politicians, athletes, poets, and more. Vote on your favorites so that the greatest music quotes rise to the top, as the order of the list changes dynamically based on votes. Don't let your favorite music sayings get to the bottom of the list.

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2
6
Next to theology I give music the highest place of honor.
Martin Luther
52
4
4
There is something suspicious about music, gentlemen. I insist that she is, by her nature, equivocal. I shall not be going too far in saying at once that she is politically suspect.
Thomas Mann
53
0
2
The opera is to music what a bawdy house is to a cathedral.
H. L. Mencken
54
0
6
Music is a beautiful opiate, if you don't take it too seriously.
Henry Miller
55
0
2
Only sick music makes money today.
Friedrich Nietzsche
56
4
2
Without music, life would be a mistake.
Friedrich Nietzsche
57
2
2
Without music, life would be an error. The German imagines even God singing songs
Friedrich Nietzsche

58
0
2
I often thought that if there had been a good rap group around in those days, I might have chosen a career in music instead of politics.
Richard Nixon
59
0
2
Music and woman I cannot but give way to, whatever my business is.
Samuel Pepys
60
0
2
For the introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state; since styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions.
Plato
61
4
2
Medicine to produce health must examine disease; and music, to create harmony must investigate discord.
Plutarch
62
0
2
The author's conviction on this day of New Year is that music begins to atrophy when it departs too far from the dance; that poetry begins to atrophy when it gets too far from music; but this must not be taken as implying that all good music is dance music or all poetry lyric. Bach and Mozart are never too far from physical movement.
Ezra Pound
63
0
4
There once was a brainy baboon who always breathed down a bassoon for he said, It appears that in billions of years I shall certainly hit on a tune.
Ezra Pound
64
2
2
Music when healthy, is the teacher of perfect order, and when depraved, the teacher of perfect disorder.
John Ruskin
65
0
6
Music is essentially useless, as life is.
George Santayana
66
2
2
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 dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted.
William Shakespeare
67
2
2
Is it not strange that sheep's guts should hale souls out of men's bodies?
William Shakespeare
68
2
2
If music be the food of love; play on.
William Shakespeare
69
2
2
Hell is full of musical amateurs: music is the brandy of the damned.
George Bernard Shaw
70
2
2
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
71
0
2
Music is good to the melancholy, bad to those who mourn, and neither good or bad to the deaf.
Baruch Spinoza
72
0
2
I think no woman I have had ever gave me so sweet a moment, or at so light a price, as the moment I owe to a newly heard musical phrase.
Stendhal
73
0
6
They said, You have a blue guitar, you do not play things as they are. The man replied, Things as they are changed upon a blue guitar.
Wallace Stevens
74
4
2
The pleasure we feel in music springs from the obedience which is in it.
Henry David Thoreau
75
0
2
Music is the shorthand of emotion.
Leo Tolstoy

Next to theology I give music the highest place of honor.

There is something suspicious about music, gentlemen. I insist that she is, by her nature, equivocal. I shall not be going too far in saying at once that she is politically suspect.

The opera is to music what a bawdy house is to a cathedral.

Music is a beautiful opiate, if you don't take it too seriously.

Only sick music makes money today.

Without music, life would be a mistake.

Without music, life would be an error. The German imagines even God singing songs

I often thought that if there had been a good rap group around in those days, I might have chosen a career in music instead of politics.

Music and woman I cannot but give way to, whatever my business is.

For the introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state; since styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions.

Medicine to produce health must examine disease; and music, to create harmony must investigate discord.

There once was a brainy baboon who always breathed down a bassoon for he said, It appears that in billions of years I shall certainly hit on a tune.

Music when healthy, is the teacher of perfect order, and when depraved, the teacher of perfect disorder.

Music is essentially useless, as life is.

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 dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted.

Is it not strange that sheep's guts should hale souls out of men's bodies?

If music be the food of love; play on.

Hell is full of musical amateurs: music is the brandy of the damned.

Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.

Music is good to the melancholy, bad to those who mourn, and neither good or bad to the deaf.

I think no woman I have had ever gave me so sweet a moment, or at so light a price, as the moment I owe to a newly heard musical phrase.

They said, You have a blue guitar, you do not play things as they are. The man replied, Things as they are changed upon a blue guitar.

The pleasure we feel in music springs from the obedience which is in it.

Music is the shorthand of emotion.