“If music be the food of love, play on.”
Orsino’s opening line. He goes on to ask for an excess of music so that his appetite for love might fade.
When sound says it better
Short Music Quotes
Find a line about the feeling of listening, a shared song, or a memory that comes back with the music. The attributed selections are from plays, with source notes; the other lines are site-written sayings, not song lyrics.
12 music quotes & original sayingsCopy, share, or make an image
“Music has charms to soothe a savage breast.”
Almeria’s opening line; she then says music cannot calm her own grief. “Musick” and “sooth” in the historical text are modernized here. The word is “breast,” not “beast.”
Music remembers what the mind sets down.
Some feelings arrive already in rhythm.
A familiar song can reopen a whole room.
Turn it up until the day changes shape.
The right melody makes time briefly visible.
Music gives silence somewhere to return from.
We keep parts of our lives inside songs.
Listen for the part that makes you breathe differently.
A shared song is a shortcut back to each other.
When words become crowded, let the music finish.
Choosing and adapting
Write about the listening, not the lyrics
Name what the music changed in the moment
A caption can describe the room, the company, or a memory without reproducing a song. Choose a shared-song saying for a friend and a sound or rhythm saying for a concert photo. These are not lines from the performers in the photograph.
Make the memory specific
An original caption can connect a song to your experience while leaving its lyrics alone.
- Instead of
- We keep parts of our lives inside songs.
- Try
- The opening notes took us straight back to the drive home after graduation. Same friends, much better speakers.
The literary quotations have their own scenes
The Twelfth Night line opens a speech by Orsino about love and music. Congreve’s line uses “breast,” not the frequently repeated “beast.” Read the linked passages before putting either on an image; a line about music is not necessarily a song lyric or a musician’s statement.
Names and situations in the examples are illustrative. Keep only details and promises that are true for you.
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