I would say that I'm a nonviolent soldier. In place of weapons of violence, you have to use your mind, your heart, your sense of humor, every faculty available to you...because no one has the right to take the life of another human being.
To sing is to love and affirm, _x000D_ to fly and to soar, _x000D_ to coast into the hearts of the people _x000D_ who listen _x000D_ to tell them that life is to live, _x000D_ that love is there, _x000D_ that nothing is a promise, _x000D_ but that beauty exists, _x000D_ and must be hunted for and found.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the power of singing as an expression of love, beauty, and the pursuit of meaning in life.
Joan Baez's quote reflects the profound connection between singing and love, portraying it as a means of communicating beauty and the essence of life to others. It suggests that singing allows one to reach into the hearts of listeners, imparting messages that life is meant to be lived fully and that love is an ever-present force. The quote also acknowledges that while life offers no guarantees, the search for beauty is a vital and rewarding quest.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech at a charity event, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of art in connecting with people.
More from Joan Baez
All quotes →The easiest kind of relationship for me is with ten thousand people. The hardest is with one.
The hardest song to write is a protest song, a topical song with meaning.
That's all nonviolence is - organized love.
The foundation of my beliefs is the same as it was when I was 10. Non-violence.
My dread is for my show to be a nostalgia act. So the key to it is how do we keep it fresh?
Similar quotes
One does not read a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks with hopes that it will grant him a career in engineering; he does so because poetry helps him see something in the world that he might not have seen before.
Music is something that takes you to a world which is very different from the world of hatred,jealousy, and all those negative emotions
A recurring ideal, I find, is that of simplicity. At times there comes the desire to write with great precision and clarity, words so simple and moving that they bring tears to the eyes.
The quality of a play is the quality of its ideas.
I have, in some ways, saved characters that have been marginalized by society by playing them - and having them still have dignity and still survive, still get through it.
My position is that serious and good art has always existed to help, to serve, humanity. Not to indict. I don't see how art can be called art if its purpose is to frustrate humanity.