Sound Quotes - Page 2

• It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

  Voltaire

  Peace, Crazy, War

  "Rights". Book by Voltaire, 1771.

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• A word has power in and of itself. It comes from nothing into sound and meaning; it gives origin to all things.

  N. Scott Momaday

  Giving, All Things

  N. Scott Momaday (1976). “The Way to Rainy Mountain”, p.33, UNM Press

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• Silence is a sounding thing, To one who listens hungrily

  Gwendolyn B. Bennett

  Music, Poetry, Silence

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• The old men of the village of Mahotière say that the Mistress of the Water is a mulatto woman. At midnight she comes out of the spring and sings while combing her dripping long hair, which makes a sound sweeter than a violin. It is a song of perdition for whomever hears it. There is no sign of the Cross, no "Our Father" to save him. Her curse takes him like a fish in a net and the Mistress of the Water awaits him on the edge of the spring and smiles upon him and tells him to follow her to the depths, from which he will never return.

  Jacques Roumain

  Music, Song, Father

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• What are the proper proportions of a maxim? A minimum of sound to a maximum of sense.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Sarcastic, Writing

  More Tramps Abroad ch. 23, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar" (1897)

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• To me, the sea is like a person - like a child that I've known a long time. It sounds crazy, I know, but when I swim in the sea I talk to it. I never feel alone when I'm out there.

  Gertrude Ederle

  Beach, Children, Crazy

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• It is remarkable how long men will believe in the bottomlessness of a pond without taking the trouble to sound it.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Believe, Men, Long

  Henry David Thoreau, Laura Ross (2009). “Walden, Or, Life in the Woods: Bold-faced Ideas for Living a Truly Transcendent Life”, p.376, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.

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• Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices, That, if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming, The clouds methought would open, and show riches Ready to drop upon me; that, when I waked, I cried to dream again.

  William Shakespeare

  Dream, Sweet, Hurt

  'The Tempest' (1611) act 3, sc. 2, l. [152]

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• Peace may sound simple - one beautiful word - but it requires everything we have, every quality, every strength, every dream, every high ideal.

  Yehudi Menuhin

  Strength, Beautiful, Dream

  US Congress Congressional Record, V. 151, PT. 6, April 21, 2005 to May 5, 2005, p. 7471, 2009.

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• Parent of sweetest sounds, yet mute forever.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Parent, Forever, Mute

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• The first among mankind will always be those who make something imperishable out of a sheet of paper, a canvas, a piece of marble, or a few sounds

  Alfred de Vigny

  Paper, Firsts, Pieces

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• With a sound like a bat hitting a watermelon, pirate fist connected with pirate jaw and a gold tooth bounced across the deck.

  Gideon Defoe

  Gold Teeth, Pirate, Bats

  Gideon Defoe (2010). “The Pirates!: An Adventure with Scientists & An Adventure with Ahab”, p.12, Vintage

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• Some persons talk simply because they think sound is more manageable than silence.

  Margaret Halsey

  Thinking, Silence, Persons

  Margaret Halsey (1938). “With Malice Toward Some”

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• I did never know so full a voice issue from so empty a heart: but the saying is true 'The empty vessel makes the greatest sound'.

  William Shakespeare

  Heart, Empty Vessels, Voice

  William Shakespeare (1733). “The Works of Shakespeare in Seven Volumes”, p.79

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• There is a basin in the mind where words float around on thought and thought on sound and sight. Then there is a depth of thought untouched by words, and deeper still a gulf of formless feelings untouched by thought.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Sight, Feelings, Mind

  Zora Neale Hurston (1937). “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, p.31, University of Illinois Press

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• Most sermons sound to me like commercials - but I can't make out whether God is the Sponsor or the Product.

  Mignon McLaughlin

  Atheist, Literature, Agnostic

  Mignon McLaughlin (2014). “Aperçus: The Aphorisms of Mignon McLaughlin”, p.94, BookBaby

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• Sweet is every sound, Sweeter thy voice, but every sound is sweet; Myriads of rivulets hurrying thro' the lawn, The moans of doves in immemorial elms, And murmuring of innumerable bees.

  Alfred Lord Tennyson

  Music, Sweet, Voice

  'The Princess' (1847) pt. 7, l. 203, song (added 1850)

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• To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

  William Shakespeare

  Inspirational, Life, Death

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 5, sc. 5, l. 16

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• Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

  William Shakespeare

  Inspirational, Life, Success

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 5, sc. 5, l. 16

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• Music is silence, which in dreaming begins to sound

  Max Picard

  Dream, Silence, Music Is

  Max Picard (1963). “Man and Language”

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• Sound: always in a state of emergence or decay

  David Toop

  Decay, States, Emergence

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• My eyes are dim with childish tears, My heart is idly stirred, For the same sound is in my ears Which in those days I heard.

  William Wordsworth

  Heart, Eye, Tears

  William Wordsworth (1828). “The Poetical Works”, p.231

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• The Hills are alive with the sound of CRAP!

  Colin Mochrie

  Sound And Music, Alive, Hills

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• A sound like a sound of thunder rolled,
  And the heart of a nation stirred

  William Ross Wallace

  Heart, Liberty, Thunder

  William Ross Wallace (1851). “Meditations in America, and Other Poems”, p.37

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• Faith is a term that makes ignorance sound like a virtue

  Anthony Provenzano

  Ignorance, Virtue, Term

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