Without music, life would be a mistake.

Without music, life would be a mistake.

Rugged the breast that music cannot tame.

Rugged the breast that music cannot tame.

Music is the only sensual pleasure without vice.

Music is the only sensual pleasure without vice.

Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and cannot remain silent

Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and cannot remain silent

If music and sweet poetry agree.

If music and sweet poetry agree.

I remember being handed a score composed by Mozart at the age of eleven. What could I say? I felt read more

I remember being handed a score composed by Mozart at the age of eleven. What could I say? I felt like de Kooning, who was asked to comment on a certain abstract painting, and answered in the negative. He was then told it was the work of a celebrated monkey. 'That's different. For a monkey, it's terrific.'

It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness and of pain: read more

It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness and of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature, and everlasting beauty of monotony.

I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to read more

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.

When people hear good music, it makes them homesick for something they never had, and never will have.

When people hear good music, it makes them homesick for something they never had, and never will have.