Music wasn't made to make us wise, but better natured.

-- Josh Billings

(in Music: A Book of Quotations,

edited by Herb Galewitz)

Music is well said to be the speech of angels; in fact, nothing among the utterances allowed to man is felt to be so divine. It brings us near to the Infinite: we look for moments, across the cloudy elements, into the eternal Sea of Light, when song leads and inspires us.

-- Thomas Carlyle

(from "The Opera," in

The Music Lover's Literary Companion,

edited by Joan and Dannie Abse)

No one imagines that symphony is supposed to improve as it goes along, or that the whole object of playing is to reach the finale. The point of music is discovered in every moment of playing and listening to it. It is the same, I feel, with the greater part of our lives, and if we are unduly absorbed in improving them we may forget altogether to live them.

-- Alan Watts

The music you thrill to is actually one facet of the great voice of the Creator. When you understand this, you understand that the divine is not far away from you, but is actually dancing fierily in the core of your life at every moment.

-- Andrew Harvey

("Burning for God," in For the Love of God,

edited by Richard Carlson and Benjamin Shield)

For myself as a writer -- and for any artist in the process of creating -- I realize sometimes that I am just an instrument, a channel, a conduit for a spirit far greater than myself. There's something truthful coming through me . . . . This is the experience of co-creation. We realize, "My God, we're creating with God and God needs us to create."

Matthew Fox

("Creation Spirituality" in

For the Love of God: Handbook for the Spirit,

edited by Richard Carlson and Benjamin Shield)