From New Year's on the outlook brightens; good humor lost in a mood of failure returns. I resolve to stop complaining.
Leonard BernsteinRead
In the olden days, everybody sang. You were expected to sing as well as talk. It was a mark of the cultured man to sing.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Singing was once a fundamental skill of cultured individuals, just like speaking.
This quote by Leonard Bernstein reflects on the historical significance of singing in society, suggesting that in earlier times, the ability to sing was a social expectation and a sign of one's refinement. Bernstein implies that art, particularly music, played a crucial role in social interactions and cultural identity, marking a contrast with contemporary times where singing is often less valued in everyday life.
Themes
SingingCultureMusicArtExpression
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on the importance of music in culture, you might cite this quote to highlight its historical significance.
More from Leonard Bernstein
All quotes βOur most emotionally active life is lived in our dreams, and our cells renew themselves most industriously in sleep. We reach highest in meditation, and farthest in prayer. In stillness every human being is great; he is free from the experience of hostility; he is a poet, and most like an angel.
Leonard BernsteinRead
Any great art work β¦ revives and readapts time and space, and the measure of its success is the extent to which it makes you an inhabitant of that world - the extent to which it invites you in and lets you breathe its strange, special air.
Leonard BernsteinRead
The key to the mystery of a great artist is that for reasons unknown, he will give away his energies and his life just to make sure that one note follows another... and leaves us with the feeling that something is right in the world.
Leonard BernsteinRead
A liberal is a man or a woman or a child who looks forward to a better day, a more tranquil night, and a bright, infinite future.
Leonard BernsteinRead
Stillness is our most intense mode of action. It is in our moments of deep quiet that is born every idea, emotion, and drive which we eventually honor with the name of action. We reach highest in meditation, and farthest in prayer. In stillness every human being is great.
Leonard BernsteinRead
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