Famous Jacques Barzun Quotations

"Music is intended and designed for sentient beings that have hopes and purposes and emotions."

by Jacques Barzun

"If it were possible to talk to the unborn, one could never explain to them how it feels to be alive, for life is washed in the speechless real."

by Jacques Martin Barzun

"In producers, loafing is productive and no creator, of whatever magnitude, has ever been able to skip that stage, any more than a mother can skip gestation."

by Jacques Martin Barzun

"Since it is seldom clear whether intellectual activity denotes a superior mode of being or a vital deficiency, opinion swings between considering intellect a privilege and seeing it as a handicap."

by Jacques Martin Barzun

"Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition."

by Jacques Martin Barzun

"The test and the use of man's education is that he finds pleasure in the exercise of his mind."

by Jacques Martin Barzun

"Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball."

by Jacques Martin Barzun

"In any assembly the simplest way to stop transacting business and split the ranks is to appeal to a principal."

by Jacques Barzun

"Only a great mind that is overthrown yields tragedy."

by Jacques Barzun