Words of peace and healing through music

These 15 quotes from musicians and composers show just how music can ease tension, bring people together and inspire change.

1. Leonard Bernstein

“This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” - Leonard Bernstein Picture: Getty
2. Aaron Copland

“So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it and give it expressive meaning.” - Aaron Copland Picture: Getty
3. Béla Bártok

“Brotherhood despite all wars and conflicts: I try - to the best of my ability - to serve this idea in my music.” - Béla Bártok Picture: Getty
4. Hans Christian Andersen

“Where words fail, music speaks.” - Hans Christian Andersen Picture: Getty
5. Daniel Barenboim

“When playing music, it is possible to achieve a unique sense of peace.” - Daniel Barenboim Picture: Getty
6. Pablo Casals

“Music - that wonderful language - should be a source of communication among men.” - Pablo Casals Picture: Getty
7. Paul Hindemith

“Music is meaningless noise unless it touches a receiving mind.” - Paul Hindemith Picture: Getty
8. Arnold Schoenberg

“Supposing times were normal - normal as they were before 1914 - then the music of our time would be in a different situation.” - Arnold Schoenberg Picture: Getty
9. Molière

“All the disorders, all the wars which we see in the world, only occur because of the neglect to learn music.” - Molière Picture: Getty
10. Andrea Bocelli

“Some of us are born with a weakness for music. As a baby, music would stop whatever thought I was having. If I was worried, it would stop me worrying; if I was crying, it would stop me crying. Music was a healing thing for me.” - Andrea Bocelli Picture: Getty
11. Confucius

“When music and courtesy are better understood and appreciated, there will be no war.” - Confucius Picture: Getty
12. Zubin Mehta

“Music is the message of peace, and music only brings peace.” - Zubin Mehta Picture: Getty
13. Benjamin Britten

“It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness and of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature, and everlasting beauty of monotony.” - Benjamin Britten Picture: Getty
14. Gustav Mahler

“A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything.” - Gustav Mahler Picture: Getty
15. Martin Luther

“My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary.” - Martin Luther Picture: Getty