--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Music is the effort we make to explain to…" description: "\"Music is the effort we make to explain to ourselves how our brains work. We listen to Bach transfixed because this is listening to a human mind.\" — Lew..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e44/lewis-thomas-2299_bach_music-is-the-effort-we-make-to-explain-t_434159.jpg" --- # Music is the effort we make to explain to ourselves how… ![“Music is the effort we make to explain to ourselves how our brains work. We listen to Bach transfixed because this is listening to a human mind.” quote by Lewis Thomas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e44/lewis-thomas-2299_bach_music-is-the-effort-we-make-to-explain-t_434159.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e44/lewis-thomas-2299_bach_music-is-the-effort-we-make-to-explain-t_434159.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e44/lewis-thomas-2299_bach_music-is-the-effort-we-make-to-explain-t_434159.jpg) > “Music is the effort we make to explain to ourselves how our brains work. We listen to Bach transfixed because this is listening to a human mind.” [Lewis Thomas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-thomas/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Music reflects our attempt to model brain function, turning complex cognition into audible patterns. **In simple terms:** Music mirrors how we understand our brains. Key Takeaway Use music to explore mental processes. Themes cognition art science Mood curious introspective Type philosophical inspirational When to use this quote - Studying music - educational workshops - personal reflection Key Concepts Neuroscience aesthetic experience Questions to Reflect On - How does music shape your self‑knowledge? - Can sound reveal neural patterns? A Different Perspective Music may oversimplify brain complexity. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Bach](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bach/) [Brains Work](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/brains-work-490568/) [Effort](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/effort/) [Explain Brains](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/explain-brains-3820541/) [Human mind](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/human-mind/) [Listen Bach](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/listen-bach-656426/) [Listening](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/listening/) [Mind](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mind/) [Music](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/music/) [Psychology](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/psychology/) [Song](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/song/) ## Related quotes > [I listen to Bach a great deal. In general I like to listen to hymns and liturgical music.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marilynne-robinson/i-listen-to-bach-a-great-deal-in-general-i-like-to-listen-to-hymns/) [Marilynne Robinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marilynne-robinson/) > [We consciously tend to listen to stuff that is further than what we do. We listen to Bach.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/guy-manuel-de-homem-christo/we-consciously-tend-to-listen-to-stuff-that-is-further-than-what-we/) [Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/guy-manuel-de-homem-christo/) > [I never listen to music when I am writing. It would be impossible. I listen to Bach in the mornings, mostly choral music; also…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/colm-toibin/i-never-listen-to-music-when-i-am-writing-it-would-be-impossible-i/) [Colm Toibin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/colm-toibin/) > [I own a fart CD. It has, I believe, over 100 fart sounds. A lovely variety, from the up-close and personal to the more…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/simon-helberg/i-own-a-fart-cd-it-has-i-believe-over-100-fart-sounds-a-lovely/) [Simon Helberg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/simon-helberg/) > [I listen only to Bach, Beethoven or Mozart. Life is too short to waste on other composers.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-edensor-littlewood/i-listen-only-to-bach-beethoven-or-mozart-life-is-too-short-to-waste/) [John Edensor Littlewood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-edensor-littlewood/) > [When you are accompanying someone, you are listening to them the way you listen to a Bach Chorale, where four parts are going on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-amram/when-you-are-accompanying-someone-you-are-listening-to-them-the-way/) [David Amram](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-amram/) > [Any species capable of producing, at this earliest, juvenile stage of its development... the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, cannot be all bad.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-thomas/any-species-capable-of-producing-at-this-earliest-juvenile-stage-of/) [Lewis Thomas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-thomas/) > [I would send the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach into outer space on the Voyager spacecraft. But that would be boasting.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-thomas/i-would-send-the-complete-works-of-johann-sebastian-bach-into-outer/) [Lewis Thomas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-thomas/) > [Perhaps the safest thing to do at the outset, if technology permits, is to send music. This language may be the best we have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-thomas/perhaps-the-safest-thing-to-do-at-the-outset-if-technology-permits-is/) [Lewis Thomas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-thomas/) > [Your brain gets too comfortable in your everyday surroundings. You need to make it uncomfortable. You need to spend some time in another land,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/austin-kleon/your-brain-gets-too-comfortable-in-your-everyday-surroundings-you/) [Austin Kleon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/austin-kleon/) > [When you're talking about people like Shonda Rhimes, Vince Gilligan or Beau Willimon, you're talking to people who are notable and celebrities in their…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jim-rash/when-you-re-talking-about-people-like-shonda-rhimes-vince-gilligan-or/) [Jim Rash](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jim-rash/) > [“Men's brains may be bigger, but women's contain more brain cells. Also, male and female brains work differently. When men and women perform identical…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dr-kevin-leman/men-s-brains-may-be-bigger-but-women-s-contain-more-brain-cells-also/) [Dr. Kevin Leman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dr-kevin-leman/) > [I want books to give me insight into the way people's brains work and hearts work, and that's what engages me.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gillian-flynn/i-want-books-to-give-me-insight-into-the-way-people-s-brains-work-and/) [Gillian Flynn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gillian-flynn/) > [Maybe if we lie down our brains will work.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jerry-seinfeld/maybe-if-we-lie-down-our-brains-will-work/) [Jerry Seinfeld](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jerry-seinfeld/) > [Eventually, we need to have computers that work differently from the way they do today and have for the past 60-plus years. We're capturing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kevin-maney/eventually-we-need-to-have-computers-that-work-differently-from-the/) [Kevin Maney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kevin-maney/) ## More by Lewis Thomas > [“We are endowed with genes which code out our reaction to beavers and otters, maybe our reaction to each other as well. We are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-thomas/we-are-endowed-with-genes-which-code-out-our-reaction-to-beavers-and/) [Lewis Thomas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-thomas/) > [We are a spectacular, splendid manifestation of life. We have language. . . . We have affection. We have genes for usefulness, and usefulness…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-thomas/we-are-a-spectacular-splendid-manifestation-of-life-we-have-language/) [Lewis Thomas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-thomas/) > [“It is not a simple thing to decide where we fit, for at one time or another in our lives we manage to organize…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-thomas/it-is-not-a-simple-thing-to-decide-where-we-fit-for-at-one-time-or/) [Lewis Thomas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-thomas/) > [It is in our genes to understand the universe if we can, to keep trying even if we cannot, and to be enchanted by…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-thomas/it-is-in-our-genes-to-understand-the-universe-if-we-can-to-keep/) [Lewis Thomas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-thomas/) > [If an idea cannot move on its own, pushing it doesn't help; best to let it lie there.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-thomas/if-an-idea-cannot-move-on-its-own-pushing-it-doesn-t-help-best-to-let/) [Lewis Thomas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-thomas/) > [Left to ourselves, mechanistic and autonomic, we hanker for friends.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-thomas/left-to-ourselves-mechanistic-and-autonomic-we-hanker-for-friends/) [Lewis Thomas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-thomas/) > [I do not agree with this century's fashion of running down the human species as a failed try, a doomed sport. At our worst,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-thomas/i-do-not-agree-with-this-century-s-fashion-of-running-down-the-human/) [Lewis Thomas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-thomas/) > [It would seem to me... an offense against nature, for us to come on the same scene endowed as we are with the curiosity,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-thomas/it-would-seem-to-me-an-offense-against-nature-for-us-to-come-on-the/) [Lewis Thomas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-thomas/) > [The drive to be useful is encoded in our genes. But when we gather in very large numbers, as in the modern nation-state, we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-thomas/the-drive-to-be-useful-is-encoded-in-our-genes-but-when-we-gather-in/) [Lewis Thomas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-thomas/) > [I would send the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach into outer space on the Voyager spacecraft. But that would be boasting.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-thomas/i-would-send-the-complete-works-of-johann-sebastian-bach-into-outer/) [Lewis Thomas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-thomas/) > [“Nature abhors a long silence.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-thomas/nature-abhors-a-long-silence/) [Lewis Thomas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-thomas/) > [“The future is too interesting and dangerous to be entrusted to any predictable, reliable agency. We need all the fallibility we can get. Most…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-thomas/the-future-is-too-interesting-and-dangerous-to-be-entrusted-to-any/) [Lewis Thomas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-thomas/) > [We pass the word around; we ponder how the case is put by different people, we read the poetry; we meditate over the literature;…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-thomas/we-pass-the-word-around-we-ponder-how-the-case-is-put-by-different/) [Lewis Thomas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-thomas/) > [“The uniformity of the earth's life, more astonishing than its diversity, is accountable by the high probability that we derived, originally, from some single…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-thomas/the-uniformity-of-the-earth-s-life-more-astonishing-than-its/) [Lewis Thomas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-thomas/) > [Having long suspected that there was something alive in there, running the place, separate from everything else, absolutely individual and independent, we've celebrated by…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-thomas/having-long-suspected-that-there-was-something-alive-in-there-running/) [Lewis Thomas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-thomas/) [Explore all 173 Lewis Thomas quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-thomas/) ## More Bach quotes > [“Do you know what he told me after lying under a cliff for thirty six hours with two inches of his femur sticking out?…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/do-you-know-what-he-told-me-after-lying-under-a-cliff-for-thirty-six/) [Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/) > [I listen to Bach a great deal. In general I like to listen to hymns and liturgical music.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marilynne-robinson/i-listen-to-bach-a-great-deal-in-general-i-like-to-listen-to-hymns/) [Marilynne Robinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marilynne-robinson/) > [Yes, I mean like you know, having studied with Yehudi Menuhin that is like some direct route into Bach, because he was one of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nigel-kennedy/yes-i-mean-like-you-know-having-studied-with-yehudi-menuhin-that-is/) [Nigel Kennedy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nigel-kennedy/) > [I began to realize that some of the things Ornette Coleman had said about things being played three or fours ways, independently of each…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/miles-davis/i-began-to-realize-that-some-of-the-things-ornette-coleman-had-said/) [Miles Davis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/miles-davis/) > [Whenever you study composition you inevitably encounter Bach right off the bat. You can't get across the room without running into him and the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/howard-roberts/whenever-you-study-composition-you-inevitably-encounter-bach-right/) [Howard Roberts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/howard-roberts/) > [Bernard Herrmann used to write all his scores by himself. So did Bach, Beethoven and Stravinsky. I dont understand why this happens in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ennio-morricone/bernard-herrmann-used-to-write-all-his-scores-by-himself-so-did-bach/) [Ennio Morricone](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ennio-morricone/) > [“The way we define opera circa 1700 may help us to throw light not just on the choices facing Bach and his brilliant peer…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-eliot-gardiner/the-way-we-define-opera-circa-1700-may-help-us-to-throw-light-not/) [John Eliot Gardiner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-eliot-gardiner/) > [The author's conviction on this day of New Year is that music begins to atrophy when it departs too far from the dance; that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ezra-pound/the-author-s-conviction-on-this-day-of-new-year-is-that-music-begins/) [Ezra Pound](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ezra-pound/) > [In Bach there is still too much crude Christianity, crude Germanism, crude scholasticism; he stands on the threshold of European (modern) music, but he…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/in-bach-there-is-still-too-much-crude-christianity-crude-germanism/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [I used to listen to a lot of Bach on the radio, and when the basses started to sing, it made everything complete -…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charlie-haden/i-used-to-listen-to-a-lot-of-bach-on-the-radio-and-when-the-basses/) [Charlie Haden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charlie-haden/) > [The music of Bach is without doubt the most sacred gift to the world of art.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/heitor-villa-lobos/the-music-of-bach-is-without-doubt-the-most-sacred-gift-to-the-world/) [Heitor Villa-Lobos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/heitor-villa-lobos/) > [“To wake up one day and be Steinway and Glen in One... Glen Steinway, Steinway Glen, all for Bach.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-bernhard/to-wake-up-one-day-and-be-steinway-and-glen-in-one-glen-steinway/) [Thomas Bernhard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-bernhard/) > [I would send the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach into outer space on the Voyager spacecraft. But that would be boasting.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-thomas/i-would-send-the-complete-works-of-johann-sebastian-bach-into-outer/) [Lewis Thomas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-thomas/) > [“You're the kind of child who might develop a passion for Bach." I told him I hadn't at school. The one Bach piece I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dodie-smith/you-re-the-kind-of-child-who-might-develop-a-passion-for-bach-i-told/) [Dodie Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dodie-smith/) > [“You'll have a good, secure life when being alive means more to you than security, love more than money, your freedom more than public…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wilhelm-reich/you-ll-have-a-good-secure-life-when-being-alive-means-more-to-you/) [Wilhelm Reich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wilhelm-reich/) [Browse all 199 Bach quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bach/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Music is the effort we make to explain to ourselves how our brains work. 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