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.

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

“Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light.”
— Anonymous (Hebrew Psalmist), The Book of Psalms (King James Version) (1611)
Sacred arts Wonder & awe Nature
“If thine heart were right, then should every creature be a mirror of life and a book of holy doctrine. There is no creature so small and vile but that it showeth us the goodness of God.”
— Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ (trans. William Benham)
Sacred arts Wonder & awe Attention & seeing Nature
“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.”
— Anonymous (Hebrew Psalmist), The Book of Psalms (King James Version) (1611)
Sacred arts Hope Nature
“The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures. It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.”
— Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali (Song Offerings) (1912)
Sacred arts Wonder & awe Joy & delight Nature
“O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.”
— Anonymous (Hebrew Psalmist), The Book of Psalms (King James Version) (1611)
Sacred arts Wonder & awe Creativity Nature
“Praised be my Lord, for sister moon and for the stars, In heaven Thou hast formed them clear and precious and fair.”
— Francis of Assisi, The Canticle of the Sun (trans. Paschal Robinson) (1225)
Sacred arts Beauty Wonder & awe Nature
“The spring seasons are hidden in the autumns, And the autumns are charged with springs.”
— Jalalu'd-Din Rumi, Masnavi i Ma'navi (trans. E. H. Whinfield), as printed in F. Hadland Davis, The Persian Mystics
Sacred arts Hope Nature Time & mortality
“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.”
— Anonymous (Hebrew Psalmist), The Book of Psalms (King James Version) (1611)
Sacred arts Solace & consolation Nature Stillness & rest
“Praise be to Thee, my Lord, with all Thy creatures, Especially to my worshipful brother sun, The which lights up the day, and through him dost Thou brightness give; And beautiful is he and radiant with splendor great;”
— Francis of Assisi, The Canticle of the Sun (trans. Paschal Robinson) (1225)
Sacred arts Beauty Wonder & awe Nature
“The morning sea of silence broke into ripples of bird songs; and the flowers were all merry by the roadside; and the wealth of gold was scattered through the rift of the clouds while we busily went on our way and paid no heed.”
— Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali (Song Offerings) (1912)
Sacred arts Beauty Attention & seeing Nature
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”
— Anonymous (Hebrew Psalmist), The Book of Psalms (King James Version) (1611)
Sacred arts Beauty Wonder & awe Nature
“Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together”
— Anonymous (Hebrew Psalmist), The Book of Psalms (King James Version) (1611)
Sacred arts Joy & delight Nature Play
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.