Key takeaways
- The most famous music quotes come from Shakespeare and Nietzsche, and both can be checked word for word in public-domain texts.
- "If music be the food of love, play on" is the first line of Twelfth Night, spoken by Duke Orsino in Act 1, Scene 1.
- "Without music life would be a mistake" comes from Nietzsche's Twilight of the Idols, maxim 33 of Maxims and Missiles in Anthony Ludovici's translation.
- The proverb about music soothing the savage beast is a misquote: William Congreve wrote "savage breast."
- Several widely shared music quotes credited to Plato, Tolstoy and Beethoven have no match in the texts they supposedly come from.
Most music quotes online come with a famous name and nothing else. No play, no book, no letter. That is how a line drifts from one author to another until the original is lost.
This collection takes the opposite approach. Every quote below is checked against a primary text, with the work, the act or chapter, and the translator named, so you can read it in context. Shakespeare's lines come from the MIT Complete Works of Shakespeare, and the translations are public-domain editions you can open yourself.
What are the most famous music quotes?
The two most famous music quotes are Shakespeare's "If music be the food of love, play on" and Nietzsche's "Without music life would be a mistake." Both are short, both are genuine, and both are usually quoted without the context that gives them their bite.
After those, the lines people reach for come from Shakespeare's other plays, the ancient philosophers, and composers talking about their own work. The sections below take each in turn, then list the popular lines that do not hold up.
What did Shakespeare say about music?
Shakespeare's best known music line opens Twelfth Night. Duke Orsino, lovesick and listening to his musicians, says: "If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die." He is not praising music. He wants so much of it that he stops wanting love.
In The Merchant of Venice, Act 5, Scene 1, Lorenzo makes the case for music as a test of character: "The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils." Earlier in the same scene he gives the gentler version: "soft stillness and the night Become the touches of sweet harmony."
And for balance, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, Act 2, Scene 3, listening to a love song he finds ridiculous: "Is it not strange that sheeps' guts should hale souls out of men's bodies?"
Who said "Without music, life would be a mistake"?
Friedrich Nietzsche wrote it, in Twilight of the Idols. In Anthony M. Ludovici's English translation, free on Project Gutenberg, it is maxim 33 in the opening section, Maxims and Missiles.
The full maxim is funnier than the usual version: "What trifles constitute happiness! The sound of a bagpipe. Without music life would be a mistake. The German imagines even God as a songster." Nietzsche is half joking about how little it takes to make a person happy, and half serious that music is one of those things. The famous middle sentence works on its own, but the bagpipe is what makes it his.
What did ancient philosophers say about music?
Ancient philosophers treated music as a force that shapes character, not just a pleasure. Plato, Aristotle and Confucius all made the point, in different words, and all three are available in public-domain translations.
In Plato's Republic, Book III, in Benjamin Jowett's translation, Socrates tells Glaucon that "musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul." Aristotle, in Politics Book VIII (William Ellis's translation), agrees that "music is one of the most pleasing things," and concludes that it is "evident what an influence music has over the disposition of the mind."
The Analects of Confucius, Book VII, chapter 13, in James Legge's translation, gives the most human version. When Confucius heard the Shao music in the state of Ch'i, "for three months did not know the taste of flesh." His explanation: "I did not think that music could have been made so excellent as this."
Is it "music soothes the savage beast" or "savage breast"?
It is "savage breast," and the line is not a proverb but the opening of a play. William Congreve's tragedy The Mourning Bride begins with Almeria, in mourning, speaking after the music stops: "Music has charms to soothe a savage breast, To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak."
A 1776 printing on the Internet Archive shows it as the first spoken line of Act I, in old type with the long s ("favage breaft"). The breast here is the heart, the seat of feeling. Swapping in "beast" turns a line about grief into one about calming animals, which is the version you usually hear.
Which music quotes can you trace to a source?
These music quotes all trace to a named primary text. The table gives the location so you can check each one.
| Quote | Source | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| "If music be the food of love, play on." | William Shakespeare | Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 1 (Orsino) |
| "The man that hath no music in himself... Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils." | William Shakespeare | The Merchant of Venice, Act 5, Scene 1 (Lorenzo) |
| "Is it not strange that sheeps' guts should hale souls out of men's bodies?" | William Shakespeare | Much Ado About Nothing, Act 2, Scene 3 (Benedick) |
| "Without music life would be a mistake." | Friedrich Nietzsche | Twilight of the Idols, Maxims and Missiles 33 (Ludovici translation) |
| "Rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul." | Plato | Republic, Book III (Jowett translation) |
| "Music is one of the most pleasing things." | Aristotle | Politics, Book VIII (Ellis translation) |
| "I did not think that music could have been made so excellent as this." | Confucius | Analects, Book VII, chapter 13 (Legge translation) |
| "Music has charms to soothe a savage breast." | William Congreve | The Mourning Bride, Act I, opening line (Almeria) |
| "Music expresses that which cannot be said, and on which it is impossible to be silent." | Victor Hugo | William Shakespeare (1864), Part I, Book II, chapter IV (A. Baillot translation) |
| "I am no poet... But I can do it with tones; I am a musician." | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Letter to his father, Mannheim, November 8, 1777 (Kerst, translated by Krehbiel) |
What did writers and composers say about music?
The best writer's line about music belongs to Victor Hugo, and it sits in an unlikely place: his 1864 book about Shakespeare. Writing about German music, he says that "Music expresses that which cannot be said, and on which it is impossible to be silent."
Composers were usually more practical. Mozart, explaining himself to his father in 1777, said he was no poet, no painter and no dancer: "But I can do it with tones; I am a musician." Beethoven's grandest line, that music "is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy," survives only because Bettina von Arnim reported it in a letter to Goethe in 1810. It may well be close to what he said, but the words are hers.
Which popular music quotes are misattributed?
Some of the most shared music quotes cannot be found in the works of the people they are credited to. I checked each against the texts they are usually linked with, and the narrow result is this:
- "Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination" is widely credited to Plato, but it has no match in Jowett's translation of the Republic, where Plato discusses music at length.
- "Music is the shorthand of emotion" is credited to Leo Tolstoy, but the word "shorthand" does not appear in Aylmer Maude's translation of What Is Art? or in Benjamin Tucker's translation of The Kreutzer Sonata.
- "Music can change the world" is credited to Beethoven, but it does not appear in Lady Wallace's translation of his letters or in Kerst's collection of his sayings.
- "Music soothes the savage beast" is a misquote of Congreve's "savage breast," covered above.
None of this proves the lines were invented. It means the obvious source does not support the name attached.
Which music quotes work on a wall?
Music quotes work best on a wall when they are short enough to read from across a room. Orsino's "play on," Nietzsche's single sentence, or a line printed on a cassette label does more than a paragraph ever could.
That is the idea behind the cassette pieces below. Press Play carries "Starting is what stops most people," and the clear No Rewind tape reads "Life has no rewind, enjoy every moment," so the quote and the object are the same thing. For a room that already has records and speakers, an image can carry the music instead: Karma (Baroque) is a gold turntable, and Let Them Listen puts Marie Antoinette at a keyboard in headphones. Each is one gallery-wrapped canvas, ready to hang and made to order in Europe, with a floating frame as an optional upgrade.
The rest of the range sits in the music wall art collection. Our guide to cassette tape art and how to style it covers the tape designs in detail, and how to choose quote wall art covers sizing and wording.
Featured music pieces
Frequently asked questions
What is the most famous quote about music?
The most famous is probably Shakespeare's "If music be the food of love, play on," the first line of Twelfth Night. Nietzsche's "Without music life would be a mistake" is a close second. Both are genuine and can be read in context in free public-domain texts.
Is it "music soothes the savage beast"?
No. The original line, from William Congreve's The Mourning Bride, is "Music has charms to soothe a savage breast." The breast means the heart. The beast version is a later misquote.
Did Plato say music gives a soul to the universe?
That line has no match in Jowett's translation of the Republic, where Plato discusses music at length. What Plato does say there is that rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, which is a more specific claim about education.
What is a good short music quote for a wall?
Short lines read best from across a room: "play on" from Twelfth Night, Nietzsche's one sentence, or a phrase printed on a cassette label. Keep it under ten words if the canvas hangs in a busy room, and choose a line you would still like after a year.
Where did Victor Hugo write about music?
In William Shakespeare, his 1864 book about the playwright. In a passage on Germany he writes that music expresses that which cannot be said, and on which it is impossible to be silent. A. Baillot's English translation is free on Project Gutenberg.
