“I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, musick, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelaine.”
– John Adams in letter to Abigail Adams, 12 May 1780
“Music has the power of producing a certain effect on the moral character of the soul, and if it has the power to do this, it is clear that the young must be directed to music and must be educated in it.”
– Aristotle, Politics
“Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”
– Berthold Auerbach
“Music, of all the arts, stands in a special region, unlit by any star but its own, and utterly without meaning… except its own.”
– Leonard Bernstein, The Joy of Music
“I grew up in the northside of Dublin in the beleaguered sixties and seventies–music meant everything to me … Music is another language in which to express yourself. The feeling from music is liberating. It’s the most liberating language of all.”
– Bono (“Bill Clinton and Bono reveal how music changed their lives.” Niall O’Dowd, Irish Central, May 7, 2010.)
“He who sings scares away his woes.”
– Miguel de Cervantes
“I have said many times–if I hadn’t been exposed to music as a child I don’t think I would have been president.”
– Bill Clinton (“Bill Clinton and Bono reveal how music changed their lives.” Niall O’Dowd, Irish Central, May 7, 2010.)
“Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.”
– Confucius, Book of Rites
“If you would know if a people are well governed, and if its laws are good or bad, examine the music it practices.”
– Confucius, Analects
“In the coming debate over ESEA reauthorization, I believe that arts education can help build the case for the importance of a well-rounded, content-rich curriculum in at least three ways. First, the arts significantly boost student achievement, reduce discipline problems, and increase the odds that students will go on to graduate from college. Second, arts education is essential to stimulating the creativity and innovation that will prove critical to young Americans competing in a global economy. And last, but not least, the arts are valuable for their own sake, and they empower students to create and appreciate aesthetic works.”
– The Well-Rounded Curriculum, Secretary Arne Duncan’s Remarks at the Arts Education Partnership National Forum, Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington, DC, April 9, 2010
“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
“The only thing better than singing is more singing.”
– Ella Fitzgerald
“To me, art in order to be truly great must, like the beauty of Nature, be universal in its appeal. It must be simple in its presentation and direct in its expression, like the language of Nature.”
– Mahatma Gandhi, 1931, quoted in “Daily Hindu Wisdom” in the January 20, 2010
“When words leave off, music begins.”
– Heinrich Heine
“Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.”
– Victor Hugo
“Some people think music education is a privilege, but I think it’s essential to being human.”
– Jewel
“The life of the arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction, in the life of the nation, is close to the center of a nation’s purpose – and is a test to the quality of a nation’s civilization.”
– John F. Kennedy
“Music is to the mind as air is to the body.”
– Plato
“Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul”
– Plato
“The language of music is common to all generations and nations; it is understood by everybody, since it is understood with the heart.”
– Gioacchino Rossini, quoted in Zanolini, Biografia di Gioacchino Rossini (1875) A Dictionary of Musical Quotations. Ian Crofton, Donald Fraser, 1985
“There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.”
– Albert Schweitzer
“Music has always had the ability to comfort and inspire.”
– Pete Seeger
“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
– George Bernard Shaw
“We need art as much as we need good works. You need it like food. You need it for inspiration, to keep going on the days that you’re low. We need each other in that way.”
– Meryl Streep
“The man who disparages music as a luxury and non-essential is doing the nation an injury. Music now, more than ever before, is a national need.”
– Woodrow Wilson
