„Many times I hear the phrase "the dance of life". It is an expression that touches me deeply, for the instrument through which the dance speaks is also the instrument through which life is lived — the human body.“

„The human body is an instrument for the production of art in the life of the human soul.“

—  Alfred North Whitehead English mathematician and philosopher 1861 - 1947

„It's better to dance than to march through life.“

—  Yoko Ono Japanese artist, author, and peace activist 1933

„Without music and dance, life is a journey through a desert.“

—  Pat Conroy American novelist 1945 - 2016

„Consciousness expresses itself through creation. This world we live in is the dance of the Creator. Dancers come and go in the twinkling of an eye but the dance lives on. On many an occasion when I am dancing, I have felt touched by something sacred. In those moments, I felt my spirit soar and become one with everything that exists. I become the stars and the moon. I become the lover and the beloved. I become the victor and the vanquished. I become the master and the slave. I become the singer and the song. I become the knower and the known. I keep on dancing and then, it is the eternal dance of creation. The Creator and the creation merge into one wholeness of joy. I keep on dancing — until there is only … the dance.“

—  Michael Jackson American singer, songwriter and dancer 1958 - 2009

„I speak with the Eternal through the instrument of nature, — through the world's history: I read the soul of the artist in his Apollo.“

—  Friedrich Schiller German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright 1759 - 1805

„Knowledge of instrumentation should be acquired through experience. Instrumental composition should be conceived instrumentally, imagining and hearing a particular orchestra for each particular and diverse musical condition of the mind.“

—  Francesco Balilla Pratella Italian composer 1880 - 1955

„To keep through life the posture of the grave,
While others walk and run and dance and leap.“

—  Eugene Lee-Hamilton English poet and translator 1845 - 1907

„Rhythmical music is that which is made by instruments which render the sound by touch.“

—  Johannes Tinctoris Flemish composer 1435 - 1511

„The most sensitive musical instrument is the human soul. The next is the human voice. One must purify the soul until it begins to sound. A composer is a musical instrument and at the same time, a performer on that instrument. The instrument has to be in order to produce sound. One must start with that, not with the music. Through the music the composer can check whether his instrument is tuned and to what key it is tuned.“

—  Arvo Pärt Estonian composer 1935

„Am I living in a way which is deeply satisfying to me, and which truly expresses me?“

—  Carl R. Rogers American psychologist 1902 - 1987

„I used my self, my body [in his art] as an instrument.... not only my body but also my spirit.... as an instrument to research something.“

—  Anselm Kiefer German painter and sculptor 1945

„Faith, considered as a habit, is no more precious than other gracious habits are; but considered as an instrument to receive Christ and His righteousness, it excels them all; and this instrumentality of faith is noted in the phrases, "by faith," and "through faith."“

—  John Flavel English Presbyterian clergyman 1627 - 1691

„It is only in the case of musical instruments that I find any commendable diligence in the [Irish] people. They seem to me to be incomparably more skilled in these than any other people that I have seen. The movement is not, as in the British instrument to which we are accustomed, slow and easy, but rather quick and lively, while at the same time the melody is sweet and pleasant. It is remarkable how, in spite of the great speed of the fingers, the musical proportion is maintained. The melody is kept perfect and full with unimpaired art through everything – through quivering measures and the involved use of several instruments – with a rapidity that charms, a rhythmic pattern that is varied and a concord achieved through elements discordant.“
In musicis solum instrumentis commendabilem invenio gentis istius diligentiam. In quibus, prae omni natione quam vidimus, incomparabiliter instructa est. Non enim in his, sicut in Britannicis quibus assueti sumus instrumentis, tarda et morosa est modulatio, verum velox et praeceps, suavis tamen et jocunda sonoritas. Mirum quod, in tanta tam praecipiti digitorum rapacitate, musica servatur proportio; et arte per omnia indemni inter crispatos modulos, organaque multipliciter intricata, tam suavi velocitate, tam dispari paritate, tam discordi concordia, consona redditur et completur melodia.

—  Gerald of Wales Medieval clergyman and historian 1146

„When I speak of the erotic, then I speak of it as an assertion of the life force of women; of that creative energy empowered, the knowledge and use of which we are now reclaiming in our language, our history, our dancing, our loving, our work, our lives.“

—  Audre Lorde writer and activist 1934 - 1992

„The wind which passes through the skins of animals will make men leap up: That is the bagpipes, which cause men to dance.“

—  Leonardo Da Vinci Italian Renaissance polymath 1452 - 1519

„The art of life is to live in the present moment and to make that moment as perfect as we can by the realization that we are the instruments and expression of God himself.“

—  Emmet Fox American New Thought writer 1886 - 1951

„The body is an instrument which only gives off music when it is used as a body.“

—  Anaïs Nin writer of novels, short stories, and erotica 1903 - 1977

„Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love“

—  Leonard Cohen Canadian poet and singer-songwriter 1934 - 2016

„I felt I had nothing more to learn. It was the same thing wrapped up in different packaging again and again. I am not a brilliant dancer at all. But my packaging is great. You know, I have been a hippie all my life. And the dreams of the sixties that I had of living in a commune, of sharing, of never having more than I can use, of living life joyfully in nature -- that was the spirit that was inside me. And in the isolation of being a dancer I thought where is the giving, where is the sharing, with me sitting so far in a cold place? I knew I had to get back and I had to share what life had given me through dance. I was willing to give up my dance and work and beg to realise this dream. Because it would still be my dream, it would still be dance but how much joy it would give so many bodies.“

—  Protima Bedi Indian model and dancer 1948 - 1998