Drumming & Rhythm Quotes & Proverbs

"The rhythm is in your blood." -African Proverb

"Rhythm is the soul of life. The whole universe revolves in rhythm. Everything and every human action revolves in rhythm." -Babatunde Olatunji

"Where I come from we say that rhythm is the soul of life, because the whole universe revolves around rhythm, and when we get out of rhythm, that’s when we get into trouble.” ​-Babatunde Olatunji

“Rhythm and harmony enter most powerfully into the inner most part of the soul and lay forcible hands upon it, bearing grace with them, so making graceful him who is rightly trained.”  -Plato

"Most historians agree that if music started anywhere it started with the beating of a rhythm.  An unadulterated rhythm is so immediate and direct in its effect upon us that we instinctively feel its primal origins." Aaron Copeland, How to Listen to Music, pg 34

"He who makes a mistake is still our friend;
He who lengthens or shortens a melody is still our friend;
But he who violates the rhythm unawares can never be our friend."
-Arabian Proverb