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
You don't know how much artists go through to make it look so easy. It's all in the practice.
Lauryn HillRead
I hate the idea of theatre just being an evening pastime. It should be emotionally and intellectually demanding. I love football. The level of analysis that you listen to on the terraces is astonishing. If people did that in the theatre... but they don't. They expect to sit back and not participate.
Sarah KaneRead
Objective painting is not good painting unless it is good in the abstract sense. A hill or tree cannot make a good painting just because it is a hill or tree. It is lines and colors put together so that they may say something.
Georgia O'KeeffeRead
Use anger to emotionalize whatever thing you intend to do in life - being a painter, a poet or a photographer
Gordon ParksRead
We have a duty towards music, namely, to invent it.
Igor StravinskyRead
No one ever gets talker's block. No one wakes up in the morning, discovers he has nothing to say, and sits quietly, for days or weeks, until the muse hits, until the moment is right, until all the craziness in his life has died down.
Seth GodinRead