Voice

Voice is the sound made by a human being using the vocal folds for talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, and other controlled sounds emanating from the mouth.

She has the sort of voice that looks as good when it gets up in the morning as it does when heard under ideal conditions. ~ Philip Kennicott

Opera aria "Una Voce Poco Fa" (A voice a little while ago) from The Barber of Seville

A voice a little while ago still in my heart is singing ~ Cesare Sterbini, lyrics of aria "Una voce poco fa" from The Barber of Seville

Quotes

• The devil hath not, in all his quiver's choice,
  An arrow for the heart like a sweet voice.
  • Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto XV, Stanza 13.

• His voice no touch of harmony admits,
  Irregularly deep, and shrill by fits.
  The two extremes appear like man and wife
  Coupled together for the sake of strife.
  • Charles Churchill, The Rosciad (1761), line 1,003.

• If there was a lot of emotion in my voice today, it's because we've all been waiting for this day for a long time. It felt so great, … the people at this company are doing the best work of their lives, the best work that Apple has ever done.
  • Tim Cook, usatoday.com.

• She has the sort of voice that looks as good when it gets up in the morning as it does when heard under ideal conditions.
  • Philip Kennicott, "Kathleen Battle Heeds the Call" The Washington Post (May 8, 2000)

• The Angel ended, and in Adam's ear
  So charming left his voice, that he awhile
  Thought him still speaking, still stood fix'd to hear.
  • John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book VIII, line 1.

• ...the works of artists in clay, marble, and iron, and on canvas are enduring, and eagerly sought for. But the most wonderful of all, the power of the human voice, goes to the winds and is lost forever.
  • Helen Potter, Helen Potter's Impersonations (1891)

• The Buddha preaches the Law with a single voice,
  but each living being understands it in his own way.
  • Ratnākara in Vimalakirti Sutra, Chapter I, as translated by Burton Watson, Columbia University Press, 2000, ISBN: 0231106572.

• I thank you for your voices: thank you:
  Your most sweet voices.
  • William Shakespeare, Coriolanus (c. 1607-08), Act II, scene 3, line 179.

• Her voice was ever soft,
  Gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman.
  • William Shakespeare, King Lear (1608), Act V, scene 3, line 272.

• But I will aggravate my voice so that I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove.
  • William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream (c. 1595-96), Act I, scene 2, line 83.

• A voice, a little while ago / still in my heart is singing, / my heart has been wounded / by the song of Lindoro (tr. from Italian "Una voce poco fa / qui nel cor mi risuonò; /il mio cor ferito è già,/e Lindor fu che il piagò.")
  • Cesare Sterbini, libretto of Rossini opera "The Barber of Seville'", aria "Una voce poco fa."

• He ceased; but still their trembling ears retained
  The deep vibrations of his witching song.
  • James Thomson, Castle of Indolence (1748), Canto I, Stanza 20.

• Vox faucibus hæsit.
  • My voice stuck in my throat.
  • Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), II. 774; III. 48; IV. 280.

Bible

The Bible on Wikiquote

• His voice was as the sound of many waters.
  • John the Evangelist on God, Book of Revelation 1:15.

• A still, small voice.
  • I Kings 19:12.

• Vōx clāmantis in dēsertō.
• The voice of one crying out in the desert.
  • Gospel of Matthew 3:3, Vulgate.
    • The voice of one crying in the wilderness.
    • Matthew 3:3, Mark 1:3, Luke 3:4 John 1:23. KJV

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 840-41.

• Her voice changed like a bird's:
  There grew more of the music, and less of the words.
  • Robert Browning, Flight of the Duchess, Stanza 15.

• He ceased: but left so charming on their ear
  His voice, that listening still they seemed to hear.
  • Homer, The Odyssey, Book II, line 414. Pope's translation.

• The voice so sweet, the words so fair,
  As some soft chime had stroked the air;
  And though the sound had parted thence,
  Still left an echo in the sense.
  • Ben Jonson, Eupheme, IV.

• Oh, there is something in that voice that reaches
  The innermost recesses of my spirit!
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Christus, Part I. The Divine Tragedy. The First Passover, Part VI.

• Thy voice
  Is a celestial melody.
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Masque of Pandora, Part V.

• Her silver voice
  Is the rich music of a summer bird,
  Heard in the still night, with its passionate cadence.
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Spirit of Poetry, line 55.

• How sweetly sounds the voice of a good woman!
  It is so seldom heard that, when it speaks,
  It ravishes all senses.
  • Philip Massinger, The Old Law, Act IV, scene 2, line 34.

• A Locanian having plucked all the feathers off from a nightingale and seeing what a little body it had, "surely," quoth he, "thou art all voice and nothing else." (Vox et præterea nihil).
  • Plutarch, Laconic Apothegms. Credited to Lacon Incert, XIII, by Lipsius.

• Her voice was like the voice the stars
  Had when they sang together.
  • Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Blessed Damozel, Stanza 10.

• A sweet voice, a little indistinct and muffled, which caresses and does not thrill; an utterance which glides on without emphasis, and lays stress only on what is deeply felt.
  • George Sand, Handsome Lawrence, Chapter III.

• Vox nihil aliud quam ictus aer.
  • The voice is nothing but beaten air.
  • Seneca the Younger, Naturalinum Quæstionum, Book II. 29.

• And rolling far along the gloomy shores
  The voice of days of old and days to be.
  • Alfred Tennyson, The Passing of Arthur.

• Two voices are there; one is of the sea,
  One of the mountains: each a mighty Voice.
  • William Wordsworth, Thought of a Briton on the Subjugation of Switzerland.