Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.

Ce qu’on ne peut dire et ce qu’on ne peut taire, la musique l’exprime.

Victor Hugo

More information about this quote

Topic

Limits of language

Author

Victor Hugo

Source

William Shakespeare

Language

French

Time

1864 1860s 19th century

Occupation

Novelist Poet Writer

From

France Europe

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hugo, Victor. William Shakespeare. Paris: Lacroix & Verboeckhoven & Cie, 1864, pt. 1, bk. 2, ch. 4.

Illustrated Quote

A quote by Victor Hugo about limits of language: “Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible…”
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A quote by Victor Hugo about limits of language: “Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible…”
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A quote by Victor Hugo about limits of language: “Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible…”
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Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote from the 1860s

Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves suck back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Aegean.

Matthew Arnold

Dover Beach

Read Dover Beach at Poetry Foundation
More information about this quote
Topic
The beach Waves Melancholy

Author

Matthew Arnold
Source
Dover Beach
Medium
Poem
Language
English
Time
1867 1860s 19th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Arnold, Matthew. "Dover Beach." New Poems. London: Macmillan and Co., 1867, I. 9.

Current Citation

Arnold, Matthew. "Dover Beach." Dover Beach and Other Poems. Dover Publications, 2012, I. 9.

Another quote from 1864

If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.

Abraham Lincoln

Read the full text of this speech at umich.edu
More information about this quote
Topic
Slavery

Author

Abraham Lincoln
Source
Letters of Abraham Lincoln
Medium
Letter
Genre
Political speech
Language
English
Time
1864 1860s 19th century
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. Letter to Albert G. Hodges. 4 Apr. 1864.

Current Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. "To Albert G. Hodges, April 4, 1864." Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher. Library of America, 1989.

Another quote originally in French

The most decisive actions of our life-I mean those that our most likely to decide the whole course of our future-are more often than not, unconsidered.

Andre Gide

The Counterfeiters

More information about this quote
Topic
Inflection points
Speaker
Hildebrant

Author

Andre Gide
Source
The Counterfeiters
Medium
Novel
Statement Type
Paradox
Language
French
Time
1926 1920s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Gide, Andre. Les Faux-monnayeurs [The Counterfeiters]. Nouvelle Revue Francaise, 1925, pt. 3, ch. 16.

Current Citation

Gide, Andre. The Counterfeiters, translated by Dorothy Bussy. Penguin Books, 1990, pt. 3, ch. 16.