In Reason's ear they all rejoice, And utter forth a glorious voice, For ever singing, as they shine: 'The hand that made us is divine.'

-Addison,Joseph
  In The Spectator, no.465, 23  Aug.

Onlyöbut this is rareö When a beloved hand is laid in ours, When, jaded with the rush and glare Of the interminable hours, Our eyes can in another's eyes read clear, When our world-deafened ear Is by the tones of a loved voice caressedö A bolt is shot back somewhere in our breast, And a lost pulse of feeling stirs again. The eye sinks inward, and the heart lies plain, And what we mean, we say, and what we would, we know.

-Arnold, Matthew
  Empedocles on Etna and Other Poems,'The Buried Life', l.77^87.

Good music isthat whichpenetratesthe ear with facility and quits the memory with difficulty. Magical music never leaves the memory.

-Beecham, SirThomas
  Television broadcast,17 Nov.

I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Job 42:5^6.

Hethat plantedthe ear, shall henot hear? hethat formed the eye, shall he not see?

-Bible (Old Testament)
Psalms 94:9.

But God has a few of us to whom he whispers in the ear; The rest may reason and welcome; 'tis we musicians know.

-Browning, Robert
  Dramatis Personae,'Abt Vogler'.

Ye Jacobites by name, give an ear, give an ear! Ye Jacobites by name, give an ear.

-Burns, Robert
  'Ye  Jacobites by name', stanza1.

   He nursed the feelings these dull scenes produce, And loved to stop beside the opening sluice; Where the small stream, confined in narrow bound, Ran with a dull, unvaried, sad'ning sound; Where all presented to the eye or ear, Oppressed the soul! with misery, grief, and fear.

-Crabbe, George
  The Borough, letter 22,'Peter Grimes', l.194^9.

You that love England, who have an ear for her music, The slow movement of clouds in benediction, Clear arias of light thrilling over her uplands, Over the chords of summer sustained peacefully.

-Day-Lewis, Cecil
  The Magnetic Mountain, pt.4, no.32.

An horrid stillness first invades the ear, And in that silence we the tempest fear.

-Dryden,John
  Astraea Redux, l.7^8.

Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song, Sweet Thames, run softly, for I speak not loud or long. But at my back in a cold blast I hear The rattle of the bones, and chuckle spread from ear to ear. See Marvell 556:62.

-Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)
  The Waste Land, pt.3,'The Fire Sermon'.

It will be generally admitted that Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is the most sublime noise that has ever penetrated into the ear of man.

-Forster, E(dward) M(organ)
  Howards End, ch.5.

Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose blood isrunning money! Moloch whose fingers are ten armies! Moloch whose breast is a cannibal dynamo! Moloch whose ear is a smoking tomb!

-Ginsberg, Allen
  Howl and Other Poems,'Howl, II'.

Every night, whisper 'Peace' in your husband's ear.

-Griswold, Alfred Whitney
  Said to Nancy Reagan at a White House reception, 28 Sep.

Elected Silence, sing to me And beat upon my whorled ear, Pipe me to pastures still and be The music that I care to hear.

-Gerard Manley Hopkins
  'The Habit of Perfection'.

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; Not to the sensual ear, but, more endeared, Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone.

-Keats,John
  Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St.  Agnes and Other Poems,'Ode on a Grecian Urn', stanza 2.

I have no ear.

-Lamb, Charles
  Essays of Elia,'A Chapter on Ears'.

A pistol let off at the ear; not a feather to tickle the intellect.

-Lamb, Charles
  Of puns. Last Essays of Elia,'Popular Fallacies', no.9.

Death stands above me, whispering low I know not what into my ear; Of his strange language all I know Is, there is not a word of fear.

-Landor,Walter Savage
  'Death stands above me'.

He is young and perhaps he is right. Maybe my ear is not sensitive enough.

-Mahler, Gustav
Of Schoenberg's music. Quoted in Lebrecht Discord (1982).