“Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.”

—  Samuel Butler

Speech at the Somerville Club, February 27, 1895

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Nov. 29, 2022. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on." by Samuel Butler?
Samuel Butler photo
Samuel Butler 232
novelist 1835–1902

Related quotes

E.M. Forster photo

“Life' wrote a friend of mine, 'is a public performance on the violin, in which you must learn the instrument as you go along.”

E.M. Forster book A Room with a View

Source: A Room with a View

Joe Zawinul photo

“An instrument is not important. It is the way one plays that is important. Instruments don’t play by themselves. A piano is certainly not a better instrument than a synthesizer, but if a synthesizer is played like a piano, it becomes a very bad instrument. It doesn’t work. You can’t play a trumpet like a violin—it doesn’t go. That’s the problem—the players, not the instrument. Any instrument is a wonderful thing.”

Joe Zawinul (1932–2007) austrian composer and pianist

On how a musician's way of playing is important
Prasad interview (1997)

Helen Keller photo

“If it is true that the violin is the most perfect of musical instruments, then Greek is the violin of human thought.”

Helen Keller book The Story of My Life

Part II: Letters (1887 - 1901) TO MRS. LAURENCE HUTTON Wrentham, February 20, 1898.
The Story of My Life (1903)

Louisa May Alcott photo

“…the violin — that most human of all instruments…”

Louisa May Alcott book Jo's Boys

Source: Jo's Boys

Pierre Monteux photo

“Don’t conduct solo instruments in solo passages; don’t worry or annoy sections or players by looking intently at them in ‘ticklish’ passages”

Pierre Monteux (1875–1964) French conductor
Zubin Mehta photo

“Throughout Jack's violin solo at the Hollywood Bowl, the audience was glued to their seats. That was the only way he could get them to sit down.”

Zubin Mehta (1936) Indian conductor

Zubin Mehta in Irving Fein, Jack Benny: an Intimate Biography (1976), Volume 2, page 154.

Patrick Rothfuss photo

“Each woman is like an instrument, waiting to be learned, loved, and finely played, to have at last her own true music made.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

“The piano plays a central role in Prokofiev’s oeuvre. Not only are his works for piano solo or piano with orchestra numerous, but they also rank among his more important compositions. The piano was the first instrument Prokofiev heard and the only one he mastered.”

Boris Berman (1948) Russian/American musician

Prokofiev’s piano sonatas : a guide for the listener and the performer (2008), Prokofiev the pianist

Cassandra Clare photo

“I learned to play the instruments of war," he said, "and paint in blood.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Jerry Cantrell photo

“When asked what part did Alice in Chains played in his life during his solo career.”

Jerry Cantrell (1966) American musician and songwriter

https://web.archive.org/web/20120306231057/http://www.adbdesign.com/aic/articles/art088.html, Taking a Solo Trip, Metal-is.com, May 14, 2001
On Alice in Chains

Related topics