Pablo Picasso - Bertrand Russell - Horace - Mahatma Gandhi - Thomas Aquinas - Gustave Flaubert - Wynton Marsalis - Benny Green -
The hidden harmony is better than the obvious. Pablo Picasso
I do not understand where the ‘beauty’ and ‘harmony’ of nature are supposed to be found. Throughout the animal kingdom, animals ruthlessly prey upon each other. Most of them are either cruelly killed by other animals or slowly die of hunger. For my part, I am unable to see any very great beauty or harmony in the tapeworm. Let it not be said that this creature is sent as a punishment for our sins, for it is more prevalent among animals than among humans. I suppose what is meant by this ‘beauty’ and ‘harmony’ are such things as the beauty of the starry heavens. But one should remember that the stars every now and again explode and reduce everything in their neighbourhood to a vague mist. Beauty, in any case, is subjective and exists only in the eye of the beholder. Bertrand Russell, What is an Agnostic? cited Leo Rosten’s Religions of America
Discordant harmony. Horace, Epistles
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. Mahatma Gandhi
How is it they live in such harmony the billions of stars – when most men can barely go a minute without declaring war in their minds about someone they know. Thomas Aquinas
I tried to discover, in the rumour of forests and waves, words that other men could not hear, and I pricked up my ears to listen to the revelation of their harmony. Gustave Flaubert, November
We’ve attempted to achieve harmony through conflict ... You have musicians and they’re all standing on the bandstand, each one has their personality and their agenda. Invariably they are going to play something you don’t want to play. So you have to learn when to say a little something, when to get out of the way. So you have to have a question of the integrity, the intent, the will to play together ... It’s exactly like democracy. Wynton Marsalis
A jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges. Benny Green