Quotes About Music
"He who sings, prays twice."
Saint Augustine
"Just How Much Impact Does Music Have? In 1703, Andrew Fletcher, a great Scottish patriot, made this observation (and I paraphrase him):
"Music enhances every situation of our lives. During difficult times, music makes the burden easier. In happy times, music enhances our happiness.
And as Elder Boyd K. Packer notes, 'We are able to feel and learn very quickly through music, through art, through poetry some spiritual things that we would otherwise learn very slowly.' As we allow it, the Spirit of the Lord does soften and tune our hearts through worthy music."
(Janice Kapp Perry, "My Strength and My Song," p. 216) Every Good Thing, Talks from the 1997 BYU Women's Conference
"We get nearer to the Lord through music than perhaps through any other thing except prayer."
J. Reuben Clark, Jr., CR 10/36:111
"If you will show me the songs which a people or a community sing, then I will tell you the character of that community. "
Rudger Clawson, CR 4/07:32
"I wonder sometimes if we realize the importance of music. I wonder if we know that the Lord himself is concerned about it. He has given us the information that the song of praise is a prayer unto him.…
I would like to call attention to the fact that in our day our Heavenly Father has given a revelation, teaching us that it is our privilege, yea, our blessing, to sing, and that our songs should be sung in righteousness."
— George Albert Smith, Sharing the Gospel With Others, p.159
"Now, I know that some young people resent it a little when we comment upon such things as the wild music that is served up nowadays.
Can you not see that you are not going to get much inspiration while your mind is filled with that?
The right kind of music, on the other hand, can prepare you to receive inspiration."
Boyd K. Packer in his book, That All May Be Edified, p. 12
"Good music, especially sacred music, makes spiritual things more understandable. It is edifying and conducive to understanding. It prepares emotions for response to promptings of the Holy Spirit."
Richard G. Scott BYU Education Week, Aug. 19, 1997
"Some of the greatest sermons that have ever been preached were preached by the singing of a song."
Spencer W. Kimball (New Zealand Area Conference Report, 20-22 February 1976, page 27, quoted by Franklin D. Richards, Ensign, November 1982, page 22)
"The most effective preaching of the gospel is when it is accompanied by beautiful appropriate music."
Harold B. Lee, CR 4/73:181
"Through music, man's ability to express himself extends beyond the limits of the spoken language in both subtlety and power. Music can be used to exalt and inspire or to carry messages of degradation and destruction.
It is therefore important that as Latter-day Saints we at all times apply the principles of the gospel and seek the guidance of the Spirit in selecting the music with which we surround ourselves." (Priesthood Bulletin, August, 1973)
"Inspiring Music—Worthy Thoughts," - Boyd K. Packer - Oct. 1973 Conf. - Ensign, Jan. 1974, 25
"Music," said Gladstone, "is one of the most forceful instruments for governing the mind and spirit of man."
Boyd K. Packer, "Inspiring Music - Worthy Thoughts," Ensign, Jan. 1974, 25
"What we need in this church is better music and more of it, and better speaking and less of it."
Adam S. Bennion
(see Sterling W. Sill, Leadership, vol. 3 [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1978], p. 288) Quoted in "Of Pioneers and Prophets" - BYU Dev. by Lawrence R. Flake
"Those who immersed themselves completely in that hymn just received a wonderful blessing! Heartfelt singing, whether it is done while you are alone or when surrounded by others, can provide a welcome conduit to peace and true joy."
"Centering the Arts in Christ" - K. Newell Dayley, BYU Dev. March 6, 2001
"Where words fail, music speaks."
Hans Christian Anderson
"Isn't it funny the way some combinations of words can give you—almost apart from their meaning—a thrill like music?
C. S. Lewis, letter of 21 March 1916, paragraph 3, in The Letters of C. S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves (New York: Collier Books, 1986), 96.
David Starr Jordan, a former president of Stanford University, wrote:
To be vulgar is to do that which is not the best of its kind. It is to do poor things in poor ways, and to be satisfied with that. . . . It is vulgar to wear dirty linen when one is not engaged in dirty work.
It is vulgar to like poor music, to read weak books, to feed on sensational newspapers, . . . to find amusement in trashy novels, to enjoy vulgar theatres, to find pleasure in cheap jokes.
We . . . live in a world that is too prone to the tasteless, and we need to provide an opportunity to cultivate a taste for the finest music. And, likewise, we’re in a world that’s so attuned to the now that we need to permit people to be more attuned to the best music of all the ages.
Neal A. Maxwell, remarks at the inauguration of KRIC-FM, Ricks College, May 1984.
President J. Reuben Clark of the First Presidency, one of our greatest Christ scholars, used to listen to inspirational music in the evening before he began his insightful writings concerning the life of the Savior. The music opened his spiritual pores, as it does for all of us.
Douglas L. Callister - "Your Refined Heavenly Home" - BYU Devotional
When some music has passed the tests of time and been cherished by the noble and refined, our failure to appreciate it is not an indictment of grand music. The omission is within.
If a young person grows up on a steady diet of hamburgers and french fries, he is not likely to become a gourmet. But the fault is not with fine food. He just grew up on something less. Some have grown up on a steady diet of musical french fries.
Douglas L. Callister - "Your Refined Heavenly Home" - BYU Devotional
A few years ago I made my way to the bedroom of one of my sons to say good night. He was a junior in high school. As I approached his room, I heard the strains of Tchaikovsky's sixth symphony. I was surprised. I knew the boy loved sports, but I didn't know he loved Tchaikovsky.
Months later, as my wife and I were listening to a videotape of three tenors singing, our son came in and sat down. He listened and saw, and a new appreciation developed. He said: "You never told me about opera." He took the videotape to his room, and I never saw it again. Appreciation of the finest in music does not depend upon your age.
Douglas L. Callister - "Your Refined Heavenly Home" - BYU Devotional
This would be a good time to sift through your music library and choose primarily that which uplifts and inspires. It is part of the maturing process of your eternal journey. This would also be a fine time to learn a musical instrument or improve musical skills now partially possessed.
Douglas L. Callister - "Your Refined Heavenly Home" - BYU Devotional