As a child, you respond physically, tactically. You're delighted by sound, you're delighted by recognizing something. It's like hide and seek. Is it there? Is it not there? Is it this note? Is it not this note? It's one fantastic game.
Yo-Yo MaRead
Our cultural strength has always been derived from our diversity of understanding and experience.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Cultural strength comes from the variety of perspectives and experiences in a community.
Yo-Yo Ma emphasizes that the richness of a culture is built upon the diverse understandings and experiences of its members. This variety allows for a more robust and resilient society, as different viewpoints and backgrounds contribute to a collective strength that drives innovation, creativity, and empathy within communities.
Themes
DiversityCultureStrengthCommunityUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about community engagement, one could use this quote to highlight the importance of diverse perspectives.
More from Yo-Yo Ma
All quotes βThere's a part of me that's always charging ahead. I'm the curious kid, always going to the edge.
Yo-Yo MaRead
I think that peace is, in many ways, a precondition of joy.
Yo-Yo MaRead
I think anybody who goes away finds you appreciate home more when you return.
Yo-Yo MaRead
When we enlarge our view of the world, we deepen our understanding of our own lives.
Yo-Yo MaRead
I learn something not because I have to, but because I really want to. That's the same view I have for performing. I'm performing because I really want to, not because I have to bring bread back home.
Yo-Yo MaRead
Similar quotes
One of the brilliant things about Britain is the way you've managed to save old things but to keep using them - that they've not just become museums the way they do in the United States.
Bill BrysonRead
Looting has an immense impact on our ability to understand our global cultural heritage; once these objects are gone, so too is our chance of piecing together humanity's shared story.
Sarah ParcakRead
Being a third-generation Mexican-American and speaking English exclusively, I heard Spanish spoken by my relatives all my life, especially when they didn't want me to understand what they were talking about.
Cheech MarinRead
Culture relates to objects and is a phenomenon of the world; entertainment relates to people and is a phenomenon of life.
Hannah ArendtRead
What are you going to do to preserve a tradition that is the peculiar and unique culture that Judaism inculcates? The American Jewish community is not going to survive by lining up against its common enemy.
Arthur HertzbergRead
I had seen the photographs of Harlem in its glory days, stylish men in bespoke suits, women so well dressed that they'd put the models in 'Vogue' to shame. I knew that Harlemites loved to dance, to pray, and to eat.
Marcus SamuelssonRead