QuoteProject
Music is the brandy of the damned.
George Bernard Shaw
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Music serves as a powerful escape for those who feel lost or troubled.

George Bernard Shaw suggests that music is a potent and intoxicating experience that can resonate deeply with those who feel disconnected from society. By referring to it as 'the brandy of the damned,' he implies that music can provide solace and a sense of belonging to those struggling with their inner demons, much like how brandy serves to numb and provide temporary relief from pain.

Themes

MusicEscapeArtSolaceIntoxication

In practice

Example use cases

During a speech about coping mechanisms, one might quote Shaw to highlight the healing power of music.

More from George Bernard Shaw

What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.
George Bernard ShawRead
Marriage is good enough for the lower classes: they have facilities for desertion that are denied to us.
George Bernard ShawRead
Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature!
George Bernard ShawRead
Those who talk most about the blessings of marriage and the constancy of its vows are the very people who declare that if the chain were broken and the prisoners left free to choose, the whole social fabric would fly asunder. You cannot have the argument both ways. If the prisoner is happy, why lock him in? If he is not, why pretend that he is?
George Bernard ShawRead
Treat a friend as a person who may someday become your enemy; an enemy as a person who may someday become your friend.
George Bernard ShawRead
The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.
George Bernard ShawRead

Similar quotes

Colors must fit together as pieces in a puzzle or cogs in a wheel.
Hans HofmannRead
I would rather write or record something great and have it overlooked than do mediocre work and have it be popular.
Patti SmithRead
I hadn't performed by myself in a while. It feels very natural to me, and I assume people come for the very same reasons as they do when I'm with the band: to be moved, for something to happen to them.
Bruce SpringsteenRead
You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair - the sense that you can never completely put on the page what's in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.
Stephen KingRead
A photographer is part pick-pocket and part tightrope dancer.
Henri Cartier-BressonRead
Before I was born my mother was in great agony of spirit and in a tragic situation. She could take no food except iced oysters and champagne. If people ask me when I began to dance, I reply 'In my mother's womb, probably as a result of the oysters and Champagne.'
Isadora DuncanRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.