Voices of the Muses

The world's great painters, poets, composers and thinkers wrote constantly about how to live — in letters, journals and the works themselves. This is that wisdom, gathered and verified: a companion for your day, and a doorway into the arts they made.

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Today's voice
“My heart beats with joy at the thought of the happy day when I shall once more see and embrace you.”
— Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, The Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Vol. 1 (trans. Lady Grace Wallace, 1865) (1778)
Composer, 1756–1791
What this is, and how to use it

Not a quote site. A daily practice, and a door.

1

Find a voice for your day

Filter by what you're living through — courage, solace, gratitude, stillness — and hear how someone who lived by their art faced the same thing. Every quote is real: traced to the letter, page or verse it was actually written in, never internet folklore.

2

Don't just read — sit with it

Take one voice, not twenty. Read it slowly, twice. Ask what it would change about your afternoon if it were true. That single unhurried minute is the smallest version of every practice ImagineArts teaches.

3

Follow the voice to its art

Each voice is a door: Van Gogh's letters lead to really looking, Seneca leads to the examined life, the Psalms lead to awe. When a voice grabs you, start free and learn the practice behind it.

34 verified voices in Sacred arts · 12 shown here, a fresh sample each day

“Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.”
— Anonymous (Hebrew Psalmist), The Book of Psalms (King James Version) (1611)
Sacred arts Joy & delight Play Community
“Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.”
— Anonymous (Hebrew Psalmist), The Book of Psalms (King James Version) (1611)
Sacred arts Joy & delight Community Transcendence
“Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof.”
— Anonymous (Hebrew Psalmist), The Book of Psalms (King James Version) (1611)
Sacred arts Wonder & awe Joy & delight Nature
“Hail to thee, then, O LOVE, sweet madness! Thou who healest all our infirmities! Who art the Physician of our pride and self conceit! Who art our Plato and our Galen! Love exalts our earthly bodies to heaven, And makes the very hills to dance with joy!”
— Jalalu'd-Din Rumi, Masnavi i Ma'navi (trans. E. H. Whinfield), as printed in F. Hadland Davis, The Persian Mystics
Sacred arts Joy & delight Love & friendship Transcendence
“I will sing unto the LORD as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.”
— Anonymous (Hebrew Psalmist), The Book of Psalms (King James Version) (1611)
Sacred arts Creativity Joy & delight Gratitude
“And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.”
— Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (1923)
Sacred arts Joy & delight Play Community
“He who loveth flyeth, runneth, and is glad; he is free and not hindered.”
— Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ (trans. William Benham)
Sacred arts Joy & delight Courage Love & friendship
“Love is a great thing, a good above all others, which alone maketh every heavy burden light, and equaliseth every inequality. For it beareth the burden and maketh it no burden, it maketh every bitter thing to be sweet and of good taste.”
— Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ (trans. William Benham)
Sacred arts Joy & delight Solace & consolation Love & friendship
“Jesus! The name that charms our fears, That bids our sorrows cease; ‘Tis music in the sinner’s ears, ‘Tis life, and health, and peace.”
— Charles Wesley, O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing (1740)
Sacred arts Joy & delight Solace & consolation Transcendence
“Come, we that love the Lord, And let our joys be known; Join in a song with sweet accord, And thus surround the throne.”
— Isaac Watts, Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707)
Sacred arts Joy & delight Community Transcendence
“O sing unto the LORD a new song: sing unto the LORD, all the earth.”
— Anonymous (Hebrew Psalmist), The Book of Psalms (King James Version) (1611)
Sacred arts Creativity Joy & delight
“When thou commandest me to sing it seems that my heart would break with pride; and I look to thy face, and tears come to my eyes. All that is harsh and dissonant in my life melts into one sweet harmony—and my adoration spreads wings like a glad bird on its flight across the sea.”
— Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali (Song Offerings) (1912)
Sacred arts Beauty Creativity Joy & delight
The Salon library

This is today’s sample of twelve. The whole collection is in the Salon.

Salon members read all 746 English quotes and the Afrikaans collection too, with every filter, the plain-words notes from A Year with the Muses, the quotes they save, and a private journal for the lines that stay with them.

Join the SalonAlready a member? Open the library →

Every quote in this collection was verified against its original public-domain source — the letter, journal, poem or treatise it truly comes from. No internet folklore, no misattributions. Start free to bring these voices into your daily practice.