Quotes about tune
page 3

Isaac Watts photo

“Strange that a harp of thousand strings
Should keep in tune so long!”

Isaac Watts (1674–1748) English hymnwriter, theologian and logician

Hymn 19, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Book II.
Attributed from postum publications, Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1773)

Swapan Dasgupta photo
Basil of Caesarea photo
Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji photo
Harold Macmillan photo
Gloria Estefan photo
Charlotte Brontë photo

“The theatre was full — crammed to its roof: royal and noble were there; palace and hotel had emptied their inmates into those tiers so thronged and so hushed. Deeply did I feel myself privileged in having a place before that stage; I longed to see a being of whose powers I had heard reports which made me conceive peculiar anticipations. I wondered if she would justify her renown: with strange curiosity, with feelings severe and austere, yet of riveted interest, I waited. She was a study of such nature as had not encountered my eyes yet: a great and new planet she was: but in what shape? I waited her rising.She rose at nine that December night: above the horizon I saw her come. She could shine yet with pale grandeur and steady might; but that star verged already on its judgment-day. Seen near, it was a chaos — hollow, half-consumed: an orb perished or perishing — half lava, half glow.I had heard this woman termed "plain," and I expected bony harshness and grimness — something large, angular, sallow. What I saw was the shadow of a royal Vashti: a queen, fair as the day once, turned pale now like twilight, and wasted like wax in flame.For awhile — a long while — I thought it was only a woman, though an unique woman, who moved in might and grace before this multitude. By-and-by I recognized my mistake. Behold! I found upon her something neither of woman nor of man: in each of her eyes sat a devil. These evil forces bore her through the tragedy, kept up her feeble strength — for she was but a frail creature; and as the action rose and the stir deepened, how wildly they shook her with their passions of the pit! They wrote HELL on her straight, haughty brow. They tuned her voice to the note of torment. They writhed her regal face to a demoniac mask. Hate and Murder and Madness incarnate she stood.It was a marvellous sight: a mighty revelation.It was a spectacle low, horrible, immoral.Swordsmen thrust through, and dying in their blood on the arena sand; bulls goring horses disembowelled, made a meeker vision for the public — a milder condiment for a people's palate — than Vashti torn by seven devils: devils which cried sore and rent the tenement they haunted, but still refused to be exorcised.Suffering had struck that stage empress; and she stood before her audience neither yielding to, nor enduring, nor in finite measure, resenting it: she stood locked in struggle, rigid in resistance. She stood, not dressed, but draped in pale antique folds, long and regular like sculpture. A background and entourage and flooring of deepest crimson threw her out, white like alabaster — like silver: rather, be it said, like Death.”

Source: Villette (1853), Ch. XXIII: Vashi

Thomas Moore photo

“Faintly as tolls the evening chime,
Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time.”

Thomas Moore (1779–1852) Irish poet, singer and songwriter

Poems Relating to America. A Canadian Boat Song, st. 1.

Charles Lamb photo

“Sentimentally I am disposed to harmony; but organically I am incapable of a tune.”

A Chapter on Ears; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Essays of Elia (1823)

Haruki Murakami photo
Russell Brand photo
Isaac Barrow photo

“Mathematics is the fruitful Parent of, I had almost said all, Arts, the unshaken Foundation of Sciences, and the plentiful Fountain of Advantage to Human Affairs. In which last Respect, we may be said to receive from the Mathematics, the principal Delights of Life, Securities of Health, Increase of Fortune, and Conveniences of Labour: That we dwell elegantly and commodiously, build decent Houses for ourselves, erect stately Temples to God, and leave wonderful Monuments to Posterity: That we are protected by those Rampires from the Incursions of the Enemy; rightly use Arms, skillfully range an Army, and manage War by Art, and not by the Madness of wild Beasts: That we have safe Traffick through the deceitful Billows, pass in a direct Road through the tractless Ways of the Sea, and come to the designed Ports by the uncertain Impulse of the Winds: That we rightly cast up our Accounts, do Business expeditiously, dispose, tabulate, and calculate scattered 248 Ranks of Numbers, and easily compute them, though expressive of huge Heaps of Sand, nay immense Hills of Atoms: That we make pacifick Separations of the Bounds of Lands, examine the Moments of Weights in an equal Balance, and distribute every one his own by a just Measure: That with a light Touch we thrust forward vast Bodies which way we will, and stop a huge Resistance with a very small Force: That we accurately delineate the Face of this Earthly Orb, and subject the Oeconomy of the Universe to our Sight: That we aptly digest the flowing Series of Time, distinguish what is acted by due Intervals, rightly account and discern the various Returns of the Seasons, the stated Periods of Years and Months, the alternate Increments of Days and Nights, the doubtful Limits of Light and Shadow, and the exact Differences of Hours and Minutes: That we derive the subtle Virtue of the Solar Rays to our Uses, infinitely extend the Sphere of Sight, enlarge the near Appearances of Things, bring to Hand Things remote, discover Things hidden, search Nature out of her Concealments, and unfold her dark Mysteries: That we delight our Eyes with beautiful Images, cunningly imitate the Devices and portray the Works of Nature; imitate did I say? nay excel, while we form to ourselves Things not in being, exhibit Things absent, and represent Things past: That we recreate our Minds and delight our Ears with melodious Sounds, attemperate the inconstant Undulations of the Air to musical Tunes, add a pleasant Voice to a sapless Log and draw a sweet Eloquence from a rigid Metal; celebrate our Maker with an harmonious Praise, and not unaptly imitate the blessed Choirs of Heaven: That we approach and examine the inaccessible Seats of the Clouds, the distant Tracts of Land, unfrequented Paths of the Sea; lofty Tops of the Mountains, low Bottoms of the Valleys, and deep Gulphs of the Ocean: That in Heart we advance to the Saints themselves above, yea draw them to us, scale the etherial Towers, freely range through the celestial Fields, measure the Magnitudes, and determine the Interstices of the Stars, prescribe inviolable Laws to the Heavens themselves, and confine the wandering Circuits of the Stars within fixed Bounds: Lastly, that we comprehend the vast Fabrick of the Universe, admire and contemplate the wonderful Beauty of the Divine 249 Workmanship, and to learn the incredible Force and Sagacity of our own Minds, by certain Experiments, and to acknowledge the Blessings of Heaven with pious Affection.”

Isaac Barrow (1630–1677) English Christian theologian, and mathematician

Source: Mathematical Lectures (1734), p. 27-30

Chris Cheney photo

“For those who just tuned in we're the Beatles!”

Chris Cheney (1975) Australian rock musician

Triple J Live at the Wireless http://www.thelivingend.info/band/chris-cheney.php

Jared Yates Sexton photo
Maddox photo

“What the hell is "partly cloudy" supposed to mean? When is it not partly cloudy? … Just tune into a weather forecast. Chances are you'll hear the phrase at least 3 or more times.”

Maddox (1978) American internet writer

Meteorologist my ass! http://maddox.xmission.com/weather.html
The Best Page in the Universe

John Greenleaf Whittier photo
William Carlos Williams photo

“It is in tune with the tempo of life — scattered yet welded into the whole, — broken, yet woven together.”

William Carlos Williams (1883–1963) American poet

On his work, in an interview in The New York Herald Tribune (18 January 1932)
General sources

Alexander Pope photo

“Such were the notes thy once lov'd poet sung,
Till death untimely stopp'd his tuneful tongue.”

Alexander Pope (1688–1744) eighteenth century English poet

"Epistle to Robert, Earl of Oxford and Mortimer" preface to Thomas Parnell's Poems on Several Occasions (1721).

Vernon Corea photo

“We have all shared the treat of your lovely Lyrics, your tuneful compositions, your friendly presentation and your spontaneous sense of sharing with your followers, your treasury of talent. Keep going, keep growing, keep glowing.”

Vernon Corea (1927–2002) The legendary broadcaster – a pioneer with Radio Ceylon/Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation and the BBC.

'Remembering Clarence,' in the Sunday Times newspaper, Sri Lanka http://sundaytimes.lk/971221/plus8.html
Vernon Corea on Sri Lanka's King of Pop, Clarence Wijewardena, introducing a Lotus LP with Clarence's top hits.

Ed Bradley photo

“People know that they can tune in to "60 Minutes" any Sunday and know that they're going to learn something by watching the broadcast. They may not like every piece, they may not agree with every piece, but they'll say, huh, I didn't know that about something in there.”

Ed Bradley (1941–2006) News correspondent

[Larry King, Interview with Ed Bradley, http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0402/08/lkl.00.html, February 8, 2004, Larry King Live, CNN]

Conrad Aiken photo
W.E.B. Du Bois photo

“It was a bright September afternoon, and the streets of New York were brilliant with moving men…. He was pushed toward the ticket-office with the others, and felt in his pocket for the new five-dollar bill he had hoarded…. When at last he realized that he had paid five dollars to enter he knew not what, he stood stock-still amazed…. John… sat in a half-maze minding the scene about him; the delicate beauty of the hall, the faint perfume, the moving myriad of men, the rich clothing and low hum of talking seemed all a part of a world so different from his, so strangely more beautiful than anything he had known, that he sat in dreamland, and started when, after a hush, rose high and clear the music of Lohengrin's swan. The infinite beauty of the wail lingered and swept through every muscle of his frame, and put it all a-tune. He closed his eyes and grasped the elbows of the chair, touching unwittingly the lady's arm. And the lady drew away. A deep longing swelled in all his heart to rise with that clear music out of the dirt and dust of that low life that held him prisoned and befouled. If he could only live up in the free air where birds sang and setting suns had no touch of blood! Who had called him to be the slave and butt of all?… If he but had some master-work, some life-service, hard, aye, bitter hard, but without the cringing and sickening servility…. When at last a soft sorrow crept across the violins, there came to him the vision of a far-off home — the great eyes of his sister, and the dark drawn face of his mother…. It left John sitting so silent and rapt that he did not for some time notice the usher tapping him lightly on the shoulder and saying politely, 'will you step this way please sir?'… The manager was sorry, very very sorry — but he explained that some mistake had been made in selling the gentleman a seat already disposed of; he would refund the money, of course… before he had finished John was gone, walking hurriedly across the square… and as he passed the park he buttoned his coat and said, 'John Jones you're a natural-born fool.”

Then he went to his lodgings and wrote a letter, and tore it up; he wrote another, and threw it in the fire....
Source: The Souls of Black Folk (1903), Ch. XIII: Of the Coming of John

Robert Rauschenberg photo
Themistocles photo

“I never learned how to tune a harp, or play upon a lute; but I know how to raise a small and inconsiderable city to glory and greatness.”

Themistocles (-524–-459 BC) Athenian statesman

As quoted by Plutarch, in Lives as translated by J. Langhorne and W. Langhorne (1836), p. 84 http://books.google.com/books?id=UFROAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA84
Variant translation: 'Tis true, I never learned how to tune a harp, or play upon a lute, but I know how to raise a small and inconsiderate city to glory and greatness.
Plutarch's Themistocles, 2:3 http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0007.tlg010.perseus-eng1:2 "...tuning the lyre and handling the harp were no accomplishments of his, but rather taking in hand a city that was small and inglorious and making it glorious and great" "...λύραν μὲν ἁρμόσασθαι καὶ μεταχειρίσασθαι ψαλτήριον οὐκ ἐπίσταται, πόλιν δὲ μικρὰν καὶ ἄδοξον παραλαβὼν ἔνδοξον καὶ μεγάλην ἀπεργάσασθαι." (at Perseus Project)

Emily Dickinson photo
Chris Cornell photo

“I don’t really remember writing it [The Day I Tried To Live]. I vaguely remember the verse. It was based on a tuning that Ben Shepherd had came up with. Lyrically, it was one of those songs that I thought everyone could connect with. ‘Fell On Black Days’ is maybe a sister song to it. It’s this feeling that could come over anyone, and has probably happened to everyone. ‘Fell On Black Days’ is the feeling of waking up one day and realizing you’re not happy with your life. Nothing happened, there was no emergency, no accident, you don’t know what happened. You were happy, and one day you just aren’t, and you have to try to figure that out.
With ‘The Day I Tried To Live,’ the attitude I was trying to convey was that thing that I think everyone goes through where you wake up in the morning and you just don’t know how you are going to get through the day, and you kind of just talk yourself into it. You may go through different moments of hopelessness and wanting to give up, or wanting to just get back into bed and say f— it, but you convince yourself you’re going to do it again. And maybe this is the last time you’re going to do it, but it’s once more around.”

Chris Cornell (1964–2017) American singer-songwriter, musician

Interview with Entertainment Weekly, June 3, 2014 http://ew.com/article/2014/06/03/soundgarden-superunknown-spoonman-black-hole-sun-stories/,
On depression and suicide

Ursula K. Le Guin photo
Aron Ra photo
Elizabeth Barrett Browning photo
K. R. Narayanan photo
Tanith Lee photo

“The moon walks east of midnight,
The sun walks west of noon.
And though I love you, sweetheart,
I will not sing your tune.”

Source: East of Midnight (1977), Chapter 2, “Full Moon” (p. 24; often repeated)

Arthur Stanley Eddington photo

“There once was a brainy baboon,
Who always breathed down a bassoon,
For he said, "It appears
That in billions of years
I shall certainly hit on a tune."”

Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944) British astrophysicist

New Pathways in Science (1935) Ch. IV The End of the World, p. 62

Georgia O'Keeffe photo
Robert Burns photo

“Oh, my Luve is like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June.
O, my Luve is like the melodie,
That's sweetly played in tune.”

Robert Burns (1759–1796) Scottish poet and lyricist

A Red, Red Rose, st. 1
Johnson's The Scots Musical Museum (1787-1796)

James Russell Lowell photo

“The Maple puts her corals on in May,
While loitering frosts about the lowlands cling,
To be in tune with what the robins sing.”

James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat

Sonnet, The Maple http://www.theatlantic.com/ideastour/archive/lowell.mhtml (1875)

Emily Dickinson photo
Robert Fripp photo
Björk photo

“I want to go, on a mountain top!
With a radio and good batteries
And play a joyous tune
And free the
human
race
from suffering”

Björk (1965) Icelandic singer-songwriter

saccharine
"Alarm Call", from Homogenic (1997)
Songs

Sarah Palin photo

“My response to her, I guess it was kind of flippant. But, I was sort of taken aback, like, the suggestion was, "You're way up there in a faraway place in Alaska, do you know that there are publications in the rest of the world that are read by many?" And I was taken aback by that because, I don't know, the suggestion just was a little bit of perhaps we're not in tune with the rest of the world.”

Sarah Palin (1964) American politician

Interview with Carl Cameron http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/10/sarah_palins_interview_with_ca.html, Hannity & Colmes, Fox News, , quoted in
on her response to Katie Couric's question about which newspapers and magazines she reads (see above)
2008, 2008 interviews with Katie Couric

Thomas Gainsborough photo
Josh Billings photo
Chuck Grassley photo

“All week Senate will be on the Stimulus/Porkulus Bill. Tune in C SPAN”

Chuck Grassley (1933) American politician

Twitter Tweet http://twitter.com/ChuckGrassley (February 2, 2009); referenced by Sen. Grassley's official U.S. Senate web page http://grassley.senate.gov/info/civics_room.cfm

David Allen photo

“The purpose of a purpose? Tunes you to meaningful things you wouldn't be aware of, otherwise.”

David Allen (1945) American productivity consultant and author

23 May 2012 https://twitter.com/gtdguy/status/205390843010498561
Official Twitter profile (@gtdguy) https://twitter.com/gtdguy

Angus Young photo
Clement Attlee photo
Jane Roberts photo
Charlotte Salomon photo
Anton Mauve photo

“You go outside, light your pipe, whistle a tune and just paint what you come across. (translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)”

Anton Mauve (1838–1888) Dutch painter (1838–1888)

(version in original Dutch / origineel citaat van Anton Mauve, in het Nederlands:) Je gaat naar buiten, steekt je pijpje op, fluit een deuntje en schildert wat je tegenkomt.
Mauve's advice to his students; as cited by H.L. Berckenhoff, in Anton Mauve, Etsen van Ph. Zilcken, met fascimiles naar schilderijen, teekeningen en studies, Amsterdam 1890, (microfiche RKD-Archive Den Haag: Berckenhoff, 1890, p. 20)
Mauve's way of painting was in fact the opposite of his advice: often changing and much struggle
undated quotes

Bill Hybels photo

“When we make a habit of prayer, we stay constantly tuned to God's presence and open to receive his blessings.”

Bill Hybels (1951) American writer

Too Busy Not to Pray (2008, InterVarsity Press)

Arjo Klamer photo
Ulysses S. Grant photo

“I only know two tunes. One is Yankee Doodle, and the other one isn't.”

Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) 18th President of the United States

Quoted by Robert C. Winthrop in a letter http://books.google.com/books?id=kSUdAAAAMAAJ&q=%22I+only+know+two+tunes+one+is+yankee+doodle+and+the+other+isn't%22&pg=PA40#v=onepage to George W. Childs (c. 1889).

Bill Hicks photo
Francois Rabelais photo

“Above the pitch, out of tune, and off the hinges.”

Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Fourth Book (1548, 1552), Chapter 19.

“The muse lends me a lyre of myriad tunes,
her brush of myriad tints—I want to play
a wizard working wonders, magic tricks
with all the sounds and colors of the earth.”

Thế Lữ (1907–1989)

Source: An Anthology of Vietnamese Poems, trans. Huỳnh Sanh Thông (Yale University Press, 1996), ISBN 978-0300064100

Wallace Stevens photo
Bell Hooks photo

“The understanding I had by age thirteen of patriarchal politics created in me expectations of the feminist movement that were quite different from those of young, middle class, white women. When I entered my first women's studies class at Stanford University in the early 1970s, white women were revelling in the joy of being together-to them it was an important, momentous occasion. I had not known a life where women had not been together, where women had not helped, protected, and loved one another deeply. I had not known white women who were ignorant of the impact of race and class on their social status and consciousness (Southern white women often have a more realistic perspective on racism and classism than white women in other areas of the United States.) I did not feel sympathetic to white peers who maintained that I could not expect them to have knowledge of or understand the life experiences of black women. Despite my background (living in racially segregated communities) I knew about the lives of white women, and certainly no white women lived in our neighborhood, attended our schools, or worked in our homes When I participated in feminist groups, I found that white women adopted a condescending attitude towards me and other non-white participants. The condescension they directed at black women was one of the means they employed to remind us that the women's movement was "theirs"-that we were able to participate because they allowed it, even encouraged it; after all, we were needed to legitimate the process. They did not see us as equals. And though they expected us to provide first hand accounts of black experience, they felt it was their role to decide if these experiences were authentic. Frequently, college-educated black women (even those from poor and working class backgrounds) were dismissed as mere imitators. Our presence in movement activities did not count, as white women were convinced that "real" blackness meant speaking the patois of poor black people, being uneducated, streetwise, and a variety of other stereotypes. If we dared to criticize the movement or to assume responsibility for reshaping feminist ideas and introducing new ideas, our voices were tuned out, dismissed, silenced. We could be heard only if our statements echoed the sentiments of the dominant discourse.”

Bell Hooks (1952) American author, feminist, and social activist

Source: (1984), Chapter 1: Black Women: Shaping Feminist Theory, pp. 11-12.

Eliza Cook photo

“How cruelly sweet are the echoes that start
When memory plays an old tune on the heart!”

Eliza Cook (1818–1889) British writer

Old Dobbin, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Jonathan King photo

“A church full of singing, out of tune
Everyone's gone to the moon”

Jonathan King (1944) English singer, songwriter, impresario, record producer and film director

Song: Everyone's gone to the Moon

Victor J. Stenger photo

“The universe is not fine-tuned to us; we are fine-tuned to our particular universe.”

Victor J. Stenger (1935–2014) American philosopher

In The Fallacy of Fine-Tuning: Why the Universe Is Not Designed for Us

Neil Diamond photo

“You are the sun, I am the moon.
You are the words, I am the tune.
Play me.”

Neil Diamond (1941) American singer-songwriter

Play Me
Song lyrics, Moods (1972)

Tom Lehrer photo

“All the world seems in tune
On a spring afternoon,
When we're poisoning pigeons in the park.
Every Sunday you'll see
My sweetheart and me,
As we poison the pigeons in the park.”

Tom Lehrer (1928) American singer-songwriter and mathematician

"Poisoning Pigeons in the Park"
An Evening (Wasted) With Tom Lehrer (1959)

Ravi Shankar photo

“Thank you, if you appreciate the tuning so much, I hope you will enjoy the playing more.”

Ravi Shankar (1920–2012) Indian musician and sitar player

To the audience at The Concert for Bangladesh (1971)
Variant: Thank you, if you appreciate the tuning so much, I hope you will enjoy the playing more.

A.E. Housman photo

“Tell me not here, it needs not saying,
What tune the enchantress plays
In aftermaths of soft September
Or under blanching mays,
For she and I were long acquainted
And I knew all her ways.”

A.E. Housman (1859–1936) English classical scholar and poet

No. 40, st. 1.
Last Poems http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/8lspm10.txt (1922)

Larry Wall photo

“It's hard to tune heavily tuned code.”

Larry Wall (1954) American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl

[199801141725.JAA07555@wall.org, 1998]
Usenet postings, 1998

Igor Stravinsky photo
Timothy Leary photo
Paul Desmond photo

“Not for me. If I want to tune everybody out, I just take off my glasses and enjoy the haze.”

Paul Desmond (1924–1977) American jazz musician

On contact lenses
Unsourced

Robert G. Ingersoll photo
John Dos Passos photo
Timothy Leary photo
George Carlin photo

“The planet is fine. The people are [bleeped out]. Because everyone is trying to save the planet. The planet doesn’t need that. The planet will take care of itself. People are selfish. And that's what they're doing is trying to save the planet for themselves to have a nicer place to live. They don't care about the planet in theory. They just care about having a comfortable place. And these people with the fires and the floods and everything, they overbuild, they put nature to the test and they get what's coming to them. That's what I say. That's what's happening, and I can't wait for the sea levels to rise. I can't wait for some of these cities to disappear. There are places that are going to go away. The map is going to change and that's because -- people think nature is outside of them. They don't take into them the idea that we are part of it. They say, "oh, we're going for a nature walk. We're going to the country because we like nature." Nature is in here. [points to chest] And if you're in tune with it, like the Indians, the Hopis, especially, the balance of life, the balance, the harmony of nature, if you understand that, you don't overbuild. You don’t do all this moron stuff.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

The View, 24 October 2007 http://newsbusters.org/blogs/justin-mccarthy/2007/10/24/george-carlins-view-wildfire-victims-get-whats-coming-them
Interviews, Television Appearances

Joanna MacGregor photo
Ralph Vaughan Williams photo

“The audience is requested not to refrain from talking during the overture. Otherwise they will know all the tunes before the opera begins.”

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) English composer

Note in the score to The Poisoned Kiss (1936).

Warren Farrell photo

“Men tuned into women but not tuned into their own hurts usually retained the attitude that women needed special protection.”

Warren Farrell (1943) author, spokesperson, expert witness, political candidate

Source: Why Men Are the Way They Are (1988), p. xxii.

“Johnny has never written a tune – at least none I've ever heard – that wasn't melodically and harmonically perfect.”

Clare Fischer (1928–2012) American keyboardist, composer, arranger, and bandleader

As quoted in the liner notes from Songs for Rainy Day Lovers (1967)

Vitruvius photo
Edward VIII of the United Kingdom photo
Ilana Mercer photo

“The power of the average pop artist and her products lies in the pornography that is her 'art,' in her hackneyed political posturing, and in the fantastic technology that is Auto-Tune (without which all the sound you'd hear these 'singers' emit would be a bedroom whisper).”

Ilana Mercer South African writer

" Harvey Sweinstein And Hollywood's Hos http://dailycaller.com/2017/10/20/harvey-sweinstein-and-hollywoods-hos/," The Daily Caller, October 20, 2017.
2010s, 2017

Thomas Gainsborough photo
Kate Bush photo

“God, but you're beautiful, aren't you?
Feel your warm hand walking around.
I won't pull away.
My passion always wins.
So keep on a-moving in.
So keep on a-tuning in.
Synchronise rhythm now.”

Kate Bush (1958) British recording artist; singer, songwriter, musician and record producer

Song lyrics, The Kick Inside (1978)

Rudyard Kipling photo

“There rise her timeless capitals of Empires daily born,
Whose plinths are laid at midnight, and whose streets are packed at morn;
And here come hired youths and maids that feign to love or sin
In tones like rusty razor-blades to tunes like smitten tin.”

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) English short-story writer, poet, and novelist

Naaman's Song http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/LimitsRenewals/naamansong.html, Stanza 2.
Other works

Donald J. Trump photo

“This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

2010s, 2017, February

Patrick Allen photo

“Chucking Spunky Tunes In Your Tellybox”

Patrick Allen (1927–2006) Film, television and voice actor

E4, E4 Music Trails

Jerry Coyne photo

“When facing “scientific” arguments for God like these, ask yourself three questions. First, what’s more likely: that these are puzzles only because we refuse to see God as an answer, or simply because science hasn’t yet provided a naturalistic answer? In other words, is the religious explanation so compelling that we can tell scientists to stop working on the evolution and mechanics of consciousness, or on the origin of life, because there can never be a naturalistic explanation? Given the remarkable ability of science to solve problems once considered intractable, and the number of scientific phenomena that weren’t even known a hundred years ago, it’s probably more judicious to admit ignorance than to tout divinity.
Second, if invoking God seems more appealing than admitting scientific ignorance, ask yourself if religious explanations do anything more than rationalize our ignorance. That is, does the God hypothesis provide independent and novel predictions or clarify things once seen as puzzling—as truly scientific hypotheses do? Or are religious explanations simply stop-gaps that lead nowhere?…Does invoking God to explain the fine-tuning of the universe explain anything else about the universe? If not, then that brand of natural theology isn’t really science, but special pleading.
Finally, even if you attribute scientifically unexplained phenomena to God, ask yourself if the explanation gives evidence for your God—the God who undergirds your religion and your morality. If we do find evidence for, say, a supernatural origin of morality, can it be ascribed to the Christian God, or to Allah, Brahma, or any one god among the thousands worshipped on Earth? I’ve never seen advocates of natural theology address this question.”

Source: Faith vs. Fact (2015), pp. 156-157

Christopher Langton photo

“Artificial Life is concerned with tuning the behaviors of such low-level machines that the behavior that emerges at the global level is essentially the same as some behavior exhibited by a natural living system… Artificial Life is concerned with generating lifelike behavior.”

Christopher Langton (1949) American computer scientist

Source: Artificial Life (1989), p.4-5 as cited in: Luis M. Rocha (2012) " The logical mechanisms of life http://informatics.indiana.edu/rocha/i-bic/lec02.html" on indiana.edu, August 27, 2012

Shreya Ghoshal photo

“Love plays its lute behind the screen —
where is a lover to listen to its tune?”

Fakhruddin 'Iraqi (1213–1289) Persian philosopher

Fakhruddin Iraqi: Divine Flashes (1982)

Peter Gabriel photo

“Dressing up in costumes, playing silly games
Hiding out in tree-tops shouting out rude names
— whistling tunes we hide in the dunes by the seaside
— whistling tunes we piss on the goons in the jungle.
It’s a knockout.”

Peter Gabriel (1950) English singer-songwriter, record producer and humanitarian

Games Without Frontiers
Song lyrics, Peter Gabriel (III) (1980)

John Donne photo