»If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour!«
»The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus.
Let no such man be trusted.«
»When griping grief the heart doth wound,
and doleful dumps the mind opresses,
then music, with her silver sound,
with speedy help doth lend redress.«
»Let music sound while he doth make his choice;
Then if he lose he makes a swan-like end,
Fading in music.«
»Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water-bath is to the body.«
»Music, ho, music such as charmeth sleep!«
»Where painting is weakest, namely, in the expression of the highest moral and spiritual ideas, there music is sublimely strong.«
»Oft hat Musik die magische Gewalt, das Böse gut und Gutes bös zu machen: Nichts gibts so störrisch, hart und zornvoll, dessen Wesen nicht von der Musik zeitweise verwandelt würde.«