quotations about applause
Applause that comes thundering with such force you might think the audience merely suffers the music as an excuse for its ovations.
GREIL MARCUS
Mystery Train
O Popular Applause! what heart of man
Is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms?
WILLIAM COWPER
The Task
Fate cannot rob you of deserved applause,
Wheather you win or lose in such a cause.
PHILIP MASSINGER
The Bashful Lover
Like all hypocrites, these men overstate the case to such a degree, and so turn and pervert facts and words that they succeed only in gaining the applause of other hypocrites like themselves.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
Some Mistakes of Moses
The applause of a single human being is of great consequence.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Life of Samuel Johnson
Ah me! ah me! This applause has ruined him!
PLAUTUS
Bacchides
Applause is the french fry you find at the bottom of your onion rings.
W. KAMAU BELL
The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell
Virtue was vanity dressed up and waiting for applause.
RICHARD FLANAGAN
The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Nay, who dare shine, if not in virtue's cause?
That sole proprietor of just applause.
EDWARD YOUNG
Epistles to Mr. Pope
There is no wine in the world as heady as applause; and it has the same effect. It temporarily subdues anxiety and restores confidence.
KHUSHWANT SINGH
I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale
When the curtain falls
And there's no more applause
When the party's over
And there's no one to hold ya
Look inside yourself and find
Your own light in your mind
BASEMENT JAXX
"Lights Go Down"
Glorious bouquets and storms of applause ... are the trimmings which every artist naturally enjoys. But to move an audience in such a role, to hear in the applause that unmistakable note which breaks through the good theatre manners and comes from the heart, is to feel that you have won through to life itself. Such pleasure does not vanish with the fall of the curtain, but becomes part of one's own life.
ALICE MARKOVA
Giselle and I
I would applaud thee to the very echo,
That should applaud again.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Macbeth
In those days the applause was without art.
OVID
Ars Maatoria
The sound of applause is delicious
It's a thrill to have the world at your feet
The praise of the crowd, it's exciting
But I've learned that's not what makes a life complete
JUDY GARLAND
"Make Someone Happy"
Applause is like that, much more the expression of the group than of the sum of its individual members, it oddly both obliterates and then reinforces the sense of self.
GUY DAMMANN
"Applause for thought", The Guardian, June 13, 2007
Applause ... what a terrible way to reward an artist. He has made an effort to sing or play the most beautiful music and his audience responds with the most monotonous noise in existence.
WILLEM FREDERIK HERMANS
Au Pair
So there was no applause
When we brought down the curtain
We were so certain
There wasn't anything left to say
BARBRA STREISAND
"If It's Meant to Be"
The glorious meed of popular applause,
Of which the first ne'er knows the second cause.
LORD BYRON
Don Juan
Live for a cause not for applause.
JANET GWEN
Janet Gwen Designs