“Music is a hidden arithmetic exercise of the soul, which does not know that it is counting.”

—  Gottfried Leibniz

Letter to Christian Goldbach, April 17, 1712.
Arthur Schopenhauer paraphrased this quotation in the first book of Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung: Musica est exercitium metaphysices occultum nescientis se philosophari animi. (Music is a hidden metaphysical exercise of the soul, which does not know that it is philosophizing.)

Original

Musica est exercitium arithmeticae occultum nescientis se numerare animi.

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Gottfried Leibniz photo
Gottfried Leibniz 29
German mathematician and philosopher 1646–1716

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