“If melodiously piping flutes sprang from the olive, would you doubt that a knowledge of flute-playing resided in the olive? And what if plane trees bore harps which gave forth rhythmical sounds? Clearly you would think in the same way that the art of music was possessed by plane trees. Why, then, seeing that the universe gives birth to beings that are animate and wise, should it not be considered animate and wise itself?”

— Zeno of Citium

As quoted in De Natura Deorum by Cicero, ii. 8.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "If melodiously piping flutes sprang from the olive, would you doubt that a knowledge of flute-playing resided in the ol…" by Zeno of Citium?

Zeno of Citium 9

ancient Greek philosopher -334–-263 BC

Related quotes

“If the Olive Trees knew the hands that planted them, Their Oil would become Tears.”

Mahmoud Darwich (1941–2008) Palestinian writer

“Under the olive trees, from the ground
Grows this flower, which is a wound.”

Stephen Spender (1909–1995) English poet and man of letters

"The Coward"
The Still Centre (1939)
Context: Under the olive trees, from the ground
Grows this flower, which is a wound.
It is easier to ignore
Than the heroes' sunset fire
Of death plunged in their willed desire
Raging with flags on the world's shore.

“A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.”

William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist

“On the harp of the road what true melodies are being sounded! and its notes pierce the heart:
There the Eternal Fountain is playing its endless life-streams of birth and death.”

Kabir (1440–1518) Indian mystic poet

Songs of Kabîr (1915)

“I clearly see you a tapeworm, but not a cobra, not a cobra at all…no good at the flute! (…) I’ll go applaud you when you finally become a true monster, when you’ll have paid them, the witches, what you have to, their price, so they transmute you, blossom you, into a true phenomenon. Into a tapeworm that plays the flute.”

Louis-ferdinand Céline (1894–1961) French writer

To the Fidgeting Lunatic
in Albert Paraz, Le Gala des Vaches, Éditions de l’Élan, Paris, 1948 ; À l'agité du bocal, et autres textes de L.-F. Céline, l'Herne / Carnets de l'Herne ISBN 9782851976567 2006, 85 p. ; To the Fidgeting Lunatic (Céline on Sartre), translation by Constantin Rigas.

“A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
He whose face gives no light shall never become a star.”

William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist

Source: 1790s, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793), Proverbs of Hell, Lines 8–9

“Even things without life that give sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction of sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped? For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? So likewise you, except you utter by the tongue plain speech, how shall it be known what is said? For you shall be speaking into the air.”

Paul of Tarsus book First Epistle to the Corinthians

1 Corinthians 14:7-9 (as quoted in Catholic Bible Douay-Rehims http://www.biblebible.com/text-bible/Catholic-Bible/1_corinthians_14.asp)
First Epistle to the Corinthians

“Animation in itself is an art form, and that's the point I think always needs clarification. True animation exists without any background, or any color, or any sound, or anything else; it exists in your hand. And you can take it and flip it. […] What makes animation is the fact that you have a series of drawings that move. You don't even have to have a camera, you see; animation exists without it. If you want to broaden your audience, or make it more colorful or add music, then you put it under a camera one frame at a time, and then you run it at the same speed as you flip it, and then you have animation. If it depends basically upon soundtrack, or basically upon music, or color, graphic design, or anything else to sustain itself, then it is not unique to animation.”

Chuck Jones (1912–2002) American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films

Joe Adamson, "Witty Birds and Well-Drawn Cats: An Interview with Chuck Jones [1971]", in Chuck Jones: conversations, ed. Chuck Jones and Maureen Furniss (Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2005), 63.

“Oliver's army is here to stay
Oliver's army are on their way
And I would rather be anywhere else
But here today.”

Elvis Costello (1954) English singer-songwriter

Oliver's Army This song makes reference to the British army and to Oliver Cromwell.
Song lyrics, Armed Forces (1979)

“Teach him how you will, a pig will never play the flute.”

Robert Jordan (1948–2007) American writer

Thom Merrilin
(15 January 1990)

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Zeno of Citium 9

Related quotes

Related topics