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.

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

“Thou awakest us to delight in Thy praise; for Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee.”
— Augustine of Hippo, The Confessions of Saint Augustine (trans. E. B. Pusey)
Sacred arts Meaning & purpose Stillness & rest Transcendence
“Drunk with the joy of singing I forget myself and call thee friend who art my lord.”
— Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali (Song Offerings) (1912)
Sacred arts Joy & delight Play Transcendence
“Great art Thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is Thy power, and Thy wisdom infinite.”
— Augustine of Hippo, The Confessions of Saint Augustine (trans. E. B. Pusey)
Sacred arts Wonder & awe 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
“Thou calledst, and shoutedst, and burstest my deafness. Thou flashedst, shonest, and scatteredst my blindness.”
— Augustine of Hippo, The Confessions of Saint Augustine (trans. E. B. Pusey)
Sacred arts Wonder & awe Transcendence
“Earthly forms are only shadows of the Sun of Truth--a cradle for babes, but too small to hold those who have grown to spiritual manhood.”
— Jalalu'd-Din Rumi, Masnavi i Ma'navi (trans. E. H. Whinfield), as printed in F. Hadland Davis, The Persian Mystics
Sacred arts Imagination Truth & honesty Transcendence
“Praise ye and bless ye my Lord, and give Him thanks, And be subject unto Him with great humility.”
— Francis of Assisi, The Canticle of the Sun (trans. Paschal Robinson) (1225)
Sacred arts Gratitude Transcendence
“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
“Like a flock of homesick cranes flying night and day back to their mountain nests let all my life take its voyage to its eternal home in one salutation to thee.”
— Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali (Song Offerings) (1912)
Sacred arts Hope Time & mortality Transcendence
“Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure. This frail vessel thou emptiest again and again, and fillest it ever with fresh life. This little flute of a reed thou hast carried over hills and dales, and hast breathed through it melodies eternally new.”
— Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali (Song Offerings) (1912)
Sacred arts Wonder & awe Creativity Transcendence
“for love was born of God and cannot rest save in God above all created things.”
— Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ (trans. William Benham)
Sacred arts Love & friendship Stillness & rest Transcendence
“It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High:”
— Anonymous (Hebrew Psalmist), The Book of Psalms (King James Version) (1611)
Sacred arts Gratitude Transcendence
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.