For he had never heard anything like it--did not know such music existed in the world--and it was hard to believe that a man he knew could play it with his own two hands. There were parts of it like birdsong, and parts like rolling thunder and hard rain, and parts that glittered like fresh snow when the sun comes out and it’s so cold the air takes your breath away. And parts were like a dust devil spinning past, or a cyclone on the horizon, and all of it cried out for words that he had only read in books and had never said aloud. Mary Doria Russell
About This Quote

When you hear something so beautiful it’s hard to believe that a living being could have created it. The music of the spheres, as it is called, can be heard with a little bit of effort. It takes a certain set of ears and a certain skill. For example, a cello is great for playing this type of music because it’s made for this specific task.

It has a special shape that helps it resonate with the notes of the spheres. In this quote from his novel The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien describes Bilbo Baggins’ awe at hearing the music of the spheres played by Gandalf the Grey on his magical harp.

Some Similar Quotes
  1. Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet. - Plato

  2. Life, he realize, was much like a song. In the beginning there is mystery, in the end there is confirmation, but it's in the middle where all the emotion resides to make the whole thing worthwhile. - Nicholas Sparks

  3. Wherever you will go, I will let you down, But this lullaby goes on. - Sarah Dessen

  4. But you're so busy changing the world Just one smile can change all of mine - Jack Johnson

  5. You make me smile like the sun, fall out bed, sing like a bird, dizzy in my head. Spin like a record crazy on a sunday night. You make me dance like a fool, forget how to breath, shine like the sun buzz like a... - Uncle Kracker

More Quotes By Mary Doria Russell
  1. I believe in God the way I believe in quarks. People whose business it is to know about quantum physics or religion tell me they have good reason to believe that quarks and God exist. And they tell me that if I wanted to devote...

  2. There are times..when we are in the midst of life-moments of confrontation with birth or death, or moments of beauty when nature or love is fully revealed, or moments of terrible loneliness-times when a holy and awesome awareness comes upon us. It may come as...

  3. ..trust in God could impose an additional burden on good people slammed to their knees by some senseless tragedy. An atheist might be no less staggered by such an event, but nonbelievers often experienced a kind of calm acceptance: shit happens, and this particular shit...

  4. He's not a bad guy, John. It's human nature. He wanted it to be some mistake I made that he wouldn't have made, some flaw in me that he didn't share, so he could believe it wouldn't have happened to him. But it wasn't my...

  5. Writing my own novels in the '90s...I never imagined that in ten years, science and rationality would require explanation and defense in a world rocked and ruled by religious fervor.

Related Topics