It is the best of all trades, to make songs, and the second best to sing them.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- It ranks making songs as the best trade and singing as the second best.
- In plain terms
- Songwriting is the finest profession, singing the next.
- What can you take from it?
- Create before you perform.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Which is more essential: creation or delivery?
Another view
Valuing creation over execution may undervalue performers.
More from Hilaire Belloc
Is there no Latin word for Tea? Upon my soul, if I had known that I would have let the vulgar stuff alone.
Permalink to quote #41 Just as there is nothing between the admirable omelet and the intolerable, so with autobiography.
Permalink to quote #43 I have wandered all my life, and I have also traveled; the difference between the two being this, that we wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.
Permalink to quote #40
Related quotes
A great piece of music is beautiful regardless of how it is performed. Any prelude or fugue of Bach can be played at any tempo, with or without rhythmic nuance…
Dmitri ShostakovichDmitri Shostakovich quote #5 I think sex would be the keyword. Our music is kind of like having sex. Well, sometimes you go fast sometimes you go slow sometimes you stop.
Billy CorganBilly Corgan quote #51 If you're listening to this song You may think the chords are going wrong But they're not We just wrote it like that
George HarrisonGeorge Harrison quote #1