She likes herself, yet others hates, For that which in herself she prizes; And while she laughs at them, forgets She is the thing that she despises.
William CongreveRead
Music has charms to sooth a savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Music has the power to calm and transform even the most difficult emotions and situations.
This quote suggests that music possesses a unique ability to soothe our deepest emotions and alter our perceptions of the world around us. It implies that music can soften rigid or harsh feelings, much like it can affect physical substances, making it a profound art form that resonates with the human experience.
Themes
MusicSootheEmotionTransformationArt
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the power of the arts, one might say, 'As William Congreve noted, music has charms to soothe a savage breast.'
More from William Congreve
All quotes βWomen are like tricks by sleight of hand, Which, to admire, we should not understand
William CongreveRead
But say what you will, 'tis better to be left than never to have been loved. To pass our youth in dull indifference, to refuse the sweets of life because they once must leave us, is as preposterous as to wish to have been born old, because we one day must be old.
William CongreveRead
Grief walks upon the heels of pleasure; married in haste, we repent at leisure.
William CongreveRead
There is in true beauty, as in courage, something which narrow souls cannot dare to admire.
William CongreveRead
Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing.
William CongreveRead
Similar quotes
When the work takes over, then the artist is enabled to get out of the way, not to interfere. When the work takes over, then the artist listens.
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But the only rhyme he could summon for 'out' was 'sauerkraut,' which lacked poetic glory. He let it go. The right line would come in time. That was the thing about poetry. It crept up through the draws and coulees of the brain.
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I have never been able to remember the number of my driver's license, and there have been times when I couldn't even remember my own telephone number, but when I hear a song, sometimes only once, I never forget the melody or the lyric.
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Ah, well, do I wish that we lived in a world where gender didn't figure so prominently? Of course. Do I even think about myself as a woman when I go to make art? Of course not.
Judy ChicagoRead
In those days, a gay man was made to feel nothing but shame about his feelings and his sexuality. I wanted my drawings to counteract that, to show gay men being happy and positive about who they were. Oh, I didn't sit down to think this all out carefully. But I knew - right from the start - that my men were going to be proud and happy men!
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I've had to make the transition from sweeping in for 15 minutes, doing my stuff and clearing out, to carrying a movie for the duration - in a dress.
Philip Seymour HoffmanRead