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
“Let us rather submit with firmness to His almighty will, in the full conviction that it will prove for our good, as he does nothing without a cause.”
— 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.

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

“And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.”
— Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (1923)
Sacred arts Creativity Attention & seeing Love & friendship Truth & honesty
“Jesus, thou art all compassion, Pure, unbounded love thou art; Visit us with thy salvation, Enter every trembling heart.”
— Charles Wesley, Love Divine, All Loves Excelling (1747)
Sacred arts Solace & consolation Hope Love & friendship
“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
“Praised be my Lord for those who for Thy love forgive And weakness bear and tribulation. Blessed those who shall in peace endure, For by Thee, most High, shall they be crowned.”
— Francis of Assisi, The Canticle of the Sun (trans. Paschal Robinson) (1225)
Sacred arts Solace & consolation Love & friendship Community
“When the Love of God arises in thy heart, Without doubt God also feels love for thee.”
— Jalalu'd-Din Rumi, Masnavi i Ma'navi (trans. E. H. Whinfield), as printed in F. Hadland Davis, The Persian Mystics
Sacred arts Solace & consolation Love & friendship Transcendence
“Too late loved I Thee, O Thou Beauty of ancient days, yet ever new! too late I loved Thee! And behold, Thou wert within, and I abroad, and there I searched for Thee; deformed I, plunging amid those fair forms which Thou hadst made. Thou wert with me, but I was not with Thee.”
— Augustine of Hippo, The Confessions of Saint Augustine (trans. E. B. Pusey)
Sacred arts Beauty Love & friendship Transcendence
“Changed from glory into glory Till in heaven we take our place, Till we cast our crown before thee, Lost in wonder, love and praise.”
— Charles Wesley, Love Divine, All Loves Excelling (1747)
Sacred arts Wonder & awe Love & friendship Transcendence
“Love is the astrolabe of God's mysteries. A lover may hanker after this love or that love, But at the last he is drawn to the KING of Love. However much we describe and explain Love, When we fall in love we are ashamed of our words. Explanation by the tongue makes most things clear, But Love unexplained is better.”
— Jalalu'd-Din Rumi, Masnavi i Ma'navi (trans. E. H. Whinfield), as printed in F. Hadland Davis, The Persian Mystics
Sacred arts Love & friendship Stillness & rest Truth & honesty
“And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving.”
— Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (1923)
Sacred arts Creativity Craft & discipline 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
“No lover ever seeks union with his beloved, But his beloved is also seeking union with him.”
— Jalalu'd-Din Rumi, Masnavi i Ma'navi (trans. E. H. Whinfield), as printed in F. Hadland Davis, The Persian Mystics
Sacred arts Hope Love & friendship
“He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.”
— Anonymous (Hebrew Psalmist), The Book of Psalms (King James Version) (1611)
Sacred arts Solace & consolation Love & friendship
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.