Muses

The Muses in Greek mythology are goddesses who inspire the creation of art. The word "muse" has also often become poetically applied to actual women who have inspired creative endeavors.

"Muse" redirects here. For the band, see Muse (band).

QuotesEdit

Alphabetized by author

The ancient Greek "oral poets" all had this anxiety about the deficiencies of their memories and always began poems by praying to the muse to help them remember. The invocation of the muses may have been a purely formal element by the time we encounter it, but it very likely reflected a real sense of the anxiety that the memory of forgetting could induce in a sensitive artist of an "oral society."
- David Antin, in A Conversation with David Antin (2002) by David Antin and Charles Bernstein, p. 52

CLIO, n. One of the nine Muses. Clio's function was to preside over history -- which she did with great dignity, many of the prominent citizens of Athens occupying seats on the platform, the meetings being addressed by Messrs. Xenophon, Herodotus and other popular speakers.
- Ambrose Bierce, The Cynic's Dictionary (1906); republished as The Devil's Dictionary (1911).

To feed your Muse, then, you should always have been hungry about life since you were a child. If not, it is a little late to start.
- Ray Bradbury, in Zen in the Art of Writing (1992), p. 45

When inspiration does not come, I go for a walk, go to the movie, talk to a friend, let go... The muse is bound to return again, especially if I turn my back!
- Judy Collins, as quoted in Wise Highs: How to Thrill, Chill, & Get Away from It All Without Alcohol or Other Drugs (2006) by Alex J. Packer, p. 213

Inspiration is the windfall from hard work and focus. Muses are too unreliable to keep on the payroll.
- Helen Hanson, in "For Writers" (14 July 2010)

It is through the Muses and far-shooting Apollo that there are singers and harpers upon the earth; but princes are of Zeus, and happy is he whom the Muses love: sweet flows speech from his mouth. For though a man have sorrow and grief in his newly-troubled soul and live in dread because his heart is distressed, yet, when a singer, the servant of the Muses, chants the glorious deeds of men of old and the blessed gods who inhabit Olympus, at once he forgets his heaviness and remembers not his sorrows at all ; but the gifts of the goddesses soon turn him away from these.
- Hesiod, in Theogony (c. 700 B.C.)

There is no place for grief in a house which serves the Muse.
- Sappho (c. 600 B.C.)

O! for a muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention!
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
- William Shakespeare, opening chorus of Henry V

Who knows where inspiration comes from. Perhaps it arises from desperation. Perhaps it comes from the flukes of the universe, the kindness of the muses.
- Amy Tan, as quoted in A Small Drop of Ink : A Collection of Inspirational and Moving Quotations of the Ages (2003) by Linda Pendleton, p. 129

I have always believed that opera is a planet where the muses work together, join hands and celebrate all the arts.
- Franco Zeffirelli, as quoted in International Herald Tribune (21 March 1990), and The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations (1983) by Robert Andrews, p. 651