Symphony quotes

Symphony

245 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.

245 quotes
Fernando Pessoa
Fernando Pessoa Poet, Writer

"My soul is a hidden orchestra; I know not what instruments, what fiddlestrings and harps, drums and tamboura I sound and clash inside myself. All I hear is the symphony."

Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven Composer, Pianist

"From the glow of enthusiasm I let the melody escape. I pursue it. Breathless I catch up with it. It flies again, it disappears, it plunges into a chaos of diverse emotions. I catch it again, I seize it, I embrace it with delight... I multiply it by modulations, and at last I triumph in the first theme. There is the whole symphony."

Boris Pasternak
Boris Pasternak Poet, Novelist

"What is history? Its beginning is that of the centuries of systematic work devoted to the solution of the enigma of death, so that death itself may eventually be overcome. That is why people write symphonies, and why they discover mathematical infinity and electromagnetic waves."

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Symphony quotes (page 1 of 13)

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Teddy Wilson Jazz Musician
Symphony

"When you hear a large symphony orchestra. for instance, in a concert hall, there's a big, sweeping sound that just doesn't get on to a record."

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Slavoj Žižek Philosopher, Cultural Critic
Symphony

"I planted some jokes in my wedding. Like, the organizers asked me to select music. So when I approached wife at the ceremony, they played the second movement from Shostakovich's 10th Symphony, which is usually known as the "portrait of Stalin." And then when we embraced, the music that they played was Schubert's "Death and the Maiden." I enjoyed this in a childish way! But marriage was all a nightmare and so on and so on."

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Mother Angelica Nun, Television Personality
Symphony

"Lord #‎ God , I praise Your Holy Name. Let every beat of my heart be a note of love in the symphony of my life."

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Alan Watts Philosopher, Writer
Symphony

"Think about a piece of music - some great symphony - we don't expect it to get better as it develops, or that its whole purpose is to reach the final crescendo. The joy is found in listening to the music in each moment."

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Rumi Poet, Philosopher
Symphony

"I am a drunkard from another kind of tavern. I dance to a silent tune. I am the symphony of stars."

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Rollo May Psychologist, Author
Symphony

"The mature person becomes able to differentiate feelings into as many nuances, strong and passionate experiences, or delicate and sensitive ones, as in the different passages of music in a symphony. Unfortunately, many of us have feelings limited like notes in a bugle call."

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Buddy Rich Jazz Musician
Symphony

"If he's a true symphony artist, he knows better than that because he knows that the only truly creative musician is the jazz musician."

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Alan Watts Philosopher, Writer
Symphony

"No one imagines that a symphony is supposed to improve as it goes along, or that the whole object of playing is to reach the finale. The point of music is discovered in every moment of playing and listening to it. It is the same, I feel, with the greater part of our lives, and if we are unduly absorbed in improving them we may forget altogether to live them."

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Dale Carnegie Author, Speaker
Symphony

"Let us not get so busy or live so fast that we can't listen to the music of the meadow or the symphony that glorifies the forest. Some things in the world are far more important than wealth; one of them is the ability to enjoy simple things."

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Desmond Tutu Theologian, Activist
Symphony

"Have you seen a symphony orchestra? There is a person at the back carrying a triangle. Now and again the conductor will point to him or her and that person will play "ting." That might seem so insignificant, but in the conception of the composer something irreplaceable would be lost to the total beauty of the symphony if that "ting" did not happen."

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Woody Allen Director, Actor, Writer
Symphony

"Life is horrible, but it is not relentlessly black from wire to wire. You can sit down and hear a Mozart symphony, or you can watch the Marx Brothers, and this will give you a pleasant escape for a while. And that is about the best that you can do."

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Charles Bukowski Poet, Novelist
Symphony

"I don't know if this is true to you but for me sometimes it gets so bad that anything else say like looking at a bird on an overhead power line seems as great as a Beethoven symphony. then you forget it and you're back again."

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Victor Hugo Novelist, Poet
Symphony

"The nearer I approach the end, the plainer I hear around me the immortal symphonies of the worlds which invite me. It is marvelous, yet simple."

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Buddy Rich Jazz Musician
Symphony

"To have everything written for you It's not really creating. That's why I think symphony drummers are so limited. They 're limited to exactly what was played a hundred years before them by a thousand other drummers."

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George Carlin Comedian, Actor
Symphony

"The symphony orchestra had played poorly, so the conductor was in a bad mood. That night he beat his wife--because the music hadn't been beautiful enough."

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