Hum Quotes
More Hum Quotes
Mine be a cot beside the hill;
A beehive's hum shall soothe my ear;
A willowy brook that turns a mill,
With many a fall, shall linger near.
— A Wish (1834), lines 1-4.
The oracles are dumb, No voice or hideous hum Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving. Apollo from his shrine Can no more divine, With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving. No nightly trance or breathed spell Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell.
john milton— Hymn, stanza 19, line 173.
I live not in myself, but I become Portion of that around me; and to me High mountains are a feeling, but the hum Of human cities torture.
lord byron— Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto III (1816), Stanza 72.
But the majestic river floated on, Out of the mist and hum of that low land, Into the frosty starlight.
Matthew Arnold— 1853 Poems: A New Edition,'Sohrab and Rustum', l.875-7.
I can hum a fugue of which I've heard the music's din afore, And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore.
Sir W(illiam) S(chwenck) Gilbert— 1879 The Major-General's song, The Pirates of Penzance, act1.
[Music] a pederast might hum when raping a choirboy. Prynne
Marcel Proust— Of Faure ' s Romances sans paroles. Quoted in Musical Quarterly, 1924.
Our aim is to create an island of tranquility in our own country which, amid the joyful hum of arts and crafts, would be welcome to anyone who professes faith in Ruskin and Morris.
— Declaration in work programme of Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshop, 1903)
You put out a funny podcast, you talk about bak chor mee. I will say mee siam mai hum.
lee hsien loong— National Day Rally, 2006
One's condition on marijuana is always existential. One can feel the importance of each moment and how it is changing one. One feels one's being, one becomes aware of the enormous apparatus of nothingness — the hum of a hi-fi set, the emptiness of a pointless interruption, one becomes aware of the war between each of us, how the nothingness in each of us seeks to attack the being of others, how our being in turn is attacked by the nothingness in others.
norman mailer— Interview in Writers at Work Third Series (1967) edited by George Plimpton
And other spirits there are standing apart Upon the forehead of the age to come; These, these will give the world another heart, And other pulses. Hear ye not the hum Of mighty workings in a distant mart? Listen awhile ye nations, and be dumb.
john keats— "Sonnet. Addressed to the Same" (Benjamin Robert Haydon).
Leaves glowing in the sun, zealous hum of bumblebees, From afar, from somewhere beyond the river, echoes of lingering voices And the unhurried sounds of a hammer gave joy not only to me. Before the five senses were opened, and earlier than any beginning They waited, ready, for all those who would call themselves mortals, So that they might praise, as I do, life, that is, happiness.
czesław miłosz— "An Hour" (1972), trans. Czes?aw Mi?osz and Lillian Vallee
Towered cities please us then, And the busy hum of men.
john milton— Line 117. (L'Allegro (1631))
Go to sleep, you stunning sky, gently creep, cunning by A quiet hum is amplified by your thumb that you suck dry A hundred raging waters snare the lonely sigh Hold your breath and clasp at Cassiopeia.
joanna newsom— Cassiopeia
Home from Guatemala, back at the Waldorf. This arrival in the wild country of the soul, All approaches gone, being completely there, Where the wild poem is a substitute For the woman one loves or ought to love, One wild rhapsody a fake for another. You touch the hotel the way you touch moonlight Or sunlight and you hum and the orchestra Hums and you say "The world in a verse, A generation sealed, men remoter than mountains, Women invisible in music and motion and color," After that alien, point-blank, green and actual Guatemala.
wallace stevens— "Arrival at the Waldorf"
Mine be a cot beside the hill; A beehive's hum shall soothe my car; A willowy brook, that turns a mill, With many a fall, shall linger near.
samuel rogers— Samuel Rogers, A Wish.
But 'midst the crowd, the hum, the shock of men, To hear, to see, to feel, and to possess, And roam along, the world's tired denizen, With none who bless us, none whom we can bless.
lord byron— Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto II (1812), Stanza 26.
Hear ye not the hum Of mighty workings?
john keats— John Keats, Addressed to Haydon, Sonnet X.
The oracles are dumb, No voice or hideous hum Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving. Apollo from his shrine<br<Can no more divine, With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving. No nightly trance or breathèd spell, Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell.
— John Milton Hymn, stanza 19, line 173.
[H]e was often interrupted by the deep hum of his audience; and when, after preaching out the hour-glass, which in those days was part of the furniture of the pulpit, he held it up in his hand, the congregation clamorously encouraged him to go on till the sand had run off once more.
— Macaulay, "History of England," II., 177, on the sermons of Bishop Burnet; reported in James William Norton-Kyshe, Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 233, n. 1.
Listen! O, listen! Here ever hum the golden bees Underneath full-blossoined trees, At once with glowing fruit and flowers crowned.
james russell lowell— James Russell Lowell, The Sirens, line 94.
Twilight's soft dews steal o'er the village-green, With magic tints to harmonize the scene Stilled is the hum that through the hamlet broke When round the nuns of their ancient oak The peasants flocked to hear the minstrel play, And games and carols closed the busy day.
samuel rogers— Samuel Rogers, Pleasures of Memory, Pt I, line 1.
Towered cities please us then, And the busy hum of men.
john milton— John Milton, L'Allegro, line 117.
That undefined and mingled hum, Voice of the desert never dumb!
james hogg— James Hogg, Verses to Lady Anne Scott
Hark! I hear the tramp of thousands, And of armèd men the hum; Lo, a nation's hosts have gathered Round the quick alarming drum Saying, Come, Freemen, Come! Ere your heritage be wasted, Said the quick alarming drum.
bret harte— Bret Harte, The Rèveille.
We raise our hats to the hand a-moulding us Sure 'nuff, he has the answer He has the answer He has the answer be-duh-be-duh-be-duh-be-duh Om mani padme Om mani padme Om mani padme hum.
— Kate Bush, in "Strange Phenomena" on The Kick Inside (1977)
Om mani padme hum.
— Mantra often translated as "The Jewel in the Heart of the Lotus", particularly associated with "Lord of the Six Syllables" the four-armed form of Avalokiteshvara (Tibetan Chenrezig, Chinese Guanyin [?] , Japanese Kannon), the bodhisattva of compassion.
The Bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara who is called in Tibetan, Chenresi [often spelled Chenresig or Chenresik] is said to have given a special mantra to Nagarjuna who left it to Lion-face Dakini to transmit to Padmasambhava, whose activity confirmed Buddhism as the predominant religion in Tibet. Tibetan Buddhist Mantra Om Mani Padme hum in Sanskrit
— Alex Studholme (U. of Cambridge) on the Origins of Om Mani Padme Hum in the Karandavyuha Sutra and the relation of Buddhist mantra and Hindu (Shivaite) practice quoted in "What is a mantra?"
