Muse Quotes

• Muses work all day long and then at night get together and dance.

  Edgar Degas

  Night, Long, Together

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• Sing in me, muse, of arms and a man, who first from the shores of Troy.

  Virgil

  Men, Arms, Firsts

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• Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy.

  Homer

  Hero, Towns, Ingenious

  Homer (2015). “The Odyssey: Top Classic Collections”, p.10, 谷月社

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  I am my own muse. I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to better.

  Frida Kahlo

  Want, Subjects, My Own

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• A muse can be a mirror: a reflection of the artist's desires, anxieties, dreams and needs.

  Vince Aletti

  Dream, Artist, Reflection

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• Cheat your landlord if you can -- and must -- but do not try to shortchange the Muse.

  William S. Burroughs

  Change, Trying, Cheat

  William S Burroughs (2012). “The Western Lands”, p.10, Penguin UK

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• Once you start being a muse, you cannot stop being a muse.

  Carine Roitfeld

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• There are, it seems, two muses: The Muse of Inspiration, who gives us inarticulate visions and desires, and the Muse of Realization, who returns again and again to say, 'It is yet more difficult than you thought.' It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey.

  Wendell Berry

  Real, Inspiration, Journey

  "Poetry and Marriage: The Use of Old Forms". 1982.

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• Tell me, O muse, of travellers far and wide

  Homer

  Traveller, Wide

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• Art doesn't spring from the muses alone, but from hard work.

  Tom Rachman

  Art, Spring, Hard Work

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• The Muse visits during the process of creation, not before.

  Roger Ebert

  Creation, Process

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• The Muse is mute when public men
  Applaud a modern throne.

  William Butler Yeats

  Men, Thrones, Politics

  William Butler Yeats (1962). “Poems of William Butler Yeats”, p.237, Hayes Barton Press

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• A female friend, amiable, clever, and devoted, is a possession more valuable than parks and palaces; and without such a muse, few men can succeed in life, none be contented.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Friends, Clever, Men

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• There is no place for grief in a house which serves the Muse.

  Sappho

  Grief, House, Paganism

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• When you first awaken or before drifting off to sleep, quiet your mind, lift up your heart, muse, mull over, make discoveries. Consider, conceive, create, connect, concede that it all starts within.

  Sarah Ban Breathnach

  Inspirational, Heart, Sleep

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• Perversity is the muse of modern literature.

  Susan Sontag

  Literature, Modern, Perversity

  1966 Against Interpretation,'Camus' Notebooks'.

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• The man who arrives at the doors of artistic creation with none of the madness of the Muses would be convinced that technical ability alone was enough to make an artist... what that man creates by means of reason will pale before the art of inspired beings.

  Plato

  Art, Mean, Men

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• A cheerful life is what the Muses love. A soaring spirit is their prime delight.

  William Wordsworth

  Cheerful, Delight, Spirit

  William Wordsworth (1848). “The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth: Together with a Description of the Country of the Lakes in the North of England”, p.186

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• O! for a muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention.

  William Shakespeare

  Fire, Heaven, Invention

  'Henry V' (1599) chorus, l. 1

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• You're best when you're not in charge. The ego locks the muse.

  Robin Williams

  Self Esteem, Ego, Locks

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• Art is the extended arm of your imagination, The feast of inspiration for your muse. Art isn't just creativity, its a way of life.

  Sarah Curran

  Art, Inspiration, Creativity

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• Nothing which is harmonized by the bond of the Muse can be changed from its own to another language without destroying its sweetness

  Dante Alighieri

  Language, Destroying, Changed

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• Express your creativity. Delight in the mystery of your inner muse.

  Cheryl Richardson

  Creativity, Delight, Mystery

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• Artists are visited by the Muses, or tormented by their own passions and demons.

  Wes Nisker

  Passion, Artist, Demon

  Wes Nisker (2012). “The Essential Crazy Wisdom”, p.111, Ten Speed Press

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• The muse doesn't come without being called.

  Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

  Life

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