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 Copland (1900 - 1990)

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

Aldous Huxley (1894 - 1963), "Music at Night", 1931

[T]here's no bad day that can't be overcome by listening to a barbershop quartet; this is just truth, plain and simple.

Chuck Sigars, The World According to Chuck weblog, September 30, 2003

An intellectual snob² is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture³ and not think of The Lone⁴ Ranger⁵.

Dan Rather (1931 - )

But then there's a moment like tonight, a profound and transcendent experience, the feeling as if a door has opened, and it's all because of that instrument, that incredible, magical instrument.

Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, Northern Exposure, Mite⁶ Makes Right, 1994

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

Ed Gardner

Wagner's music is better than it sounds.

Edgar Wilson Nye (1850 - 1896), quoted in Mark Twain's Autobiography⁷, 1924

My personal hobbies are reading, listening to music, and silence.

Edith Sitwell (1887 - 1964)

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

Elvis Presley (1935 - 1977)

Only sick music makes money today.

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900), Der Fall Wagner, Section 5

Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist.

G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936)

Hell is full of musical amateurs.

George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)

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

George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950), Man and Superman (1903) act 3

I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.

George Eliot (1819 - 1880)

There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.

George Eliot (1819 - 1880), The Mill on the Floss, 1860

Music is essentially⁸ useless, as life is.

George Santayana (1863 - 1952), Life of Reason (1905) vol. 4, ch. 4

Music is essentially useless, as life is: but both have an ideal extension which lends utility to its conditions.

George Santayana (1863 - 1952), Life of Reason (1905) vol. 4, ch. 4

Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.

Groucho Marx (1890 - 1977)

Among all men on the earth bards⁹ have a share of honor and reverence¹⁰, because the muse¹¹ has taught them songs and loves the race of bards.

Homer (800 BC - 700 BC), The Odyssey¹²

My music is best understood by children and animals.

Igor Stravinsky (1882 - 1971), In Observer 8 Oct. 1961

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

J. K. Rowling, Harry¹³ Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, 1997

I think everyone should have a Beatles phase in their life. I think it's part of growing up in the Western world.

Jadelr and Cristina Cordova, Chasing Windmills, 07-24-06

Music like religion, unconditionally¹⁴ brings in its train all the moral virtues¹⁵ to the heart it enters, even though that heart is not in the least worthy¹⁶.

Jean Baptiste Montegut

I hate music, especially when it's played.

Jimmy Durante (1893 - 1980)

If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego¹⁷. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience.

John Cage (1912 - 1992)

Music is the only language in which you cannot say a mean or sarcastic¹⁸ thing.

John Erskine (1879 - 1951)

Classical music is the kind we keep thinking will turn into a tune¹⁹.

Kin¹ Hubbard (1868 - 1930)

Music is a discipline, and a mistress of order and good manners, she makes the people milder and gentler, more moral and more reasonable.

Martin Luther (1483 - 1546)

My heart, which is so full to overflowing²⁰, has often been solaced²¹ and refreshed by music when sick and weary.

Martin Luther (1483 - 1546)

Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water bath is to the body.

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809 - 1894)