50 Violin Quotes About the Stringed Instrument

By Stephanie Kirby

Writer, Entrepreneur and Inspirational quote curator

Published October 19, 2023

Music lovers will enjoy these violin quotes that show just how special this instrument really is!

The violin is recognized for its unique and beautiful sound and is used in many genres of music, including classical, country music, and pop music.

Violins are bowed musical instruments in the string family, as they typically have four strings.

Although in some ways the violin resembles a guitar, it is much smaller at two feet long or less and has fewer strings.

They can also be called fiddles.

A violin is most commonly played by drawing a “bow” across the strings, but it can also be played by striking the strings with the wooden side of the bow or by plucking the strings.

Violins originated from other instruments during the Renaissance and have become one of the best-selling and well-known instruments in the world.

Take a few moments to enjoy these violin quotes, and you will gain a new appreciation for the special sound!

The Best Violin Quotes

Here are some of the best violin quotes.

1. “The violin sings.” — Joshua Bell

2. “I’ve always wanted to play violin.” — Maggie Rogers

3. “I studied violin when I was very young.” — Lee Marvin

4. “The violin – that most human of all instruments.” — Louisa May Alcott

5. “A violin should be played with love, or not at all.” — Joseph Wechsberg

6. “I’ve played classical violin since I was five years old.” — Valentin Chmerkovskiy

7. “I have a classical music background. I studied violin and trumpet.” — Johnny Flynn

8. “I always find that there is a real communication between voice and violin.” — Itzhak Perlman

9. “The soul is like a violin string: it makes music only when it is stretched.” — Neal A. Maxwell

10. “When you play a violin piece, you are a storyteller, and you’re telling a story.” — Joshua Bell

Violin Quotes From People Who Play The Violin

Check out these violin quotes from people who play the violin.

11. “I first picked up a violin aged five – I just assumed everyone played.” — Andre Rieu

12. “I was playing violin for a long time, about six years. It takes a while.” — Kevin Eubanks

13. “I started with the classical violin when I was six, and I guess it went well.” — Allison Krauss

14. “At the age of nine, playing the violin at school, and then onto the mandolin.” — Noel Redding

15. “I started off with violin, then I started learning guitar, then I went to piano.” — Jesse Spencer

16. “I started playing violin when I was six, so I thought I could be a professional.” — Torrey DeVitto

17. “I wanted to play my violin and have my musical expression through the instrument.” — Gustavo Dudamel

18. “What drew me to the violin was mastering the instrument technically, which I’m continuing to do.” — Joshua Bell

19. “Well, my main instrument is a violin, but I think of myself as a songwriter who happens to play the violin.” — Andrew Bird

20. “I love classical music and have been playing violin since I was seven. Music helps me to express feelings in a way words often cannot.” — Jane Chen

Poetic Violin Quotes

Here are some poetic violin quotes.

21. “The older the violin, the sweeter the music.” — Larry McMurtry

22. “A violinist had a violin, a painter his palette.” — Josephine Baker

23. “if a violin string could ache, I would be that string.” — Vladimir Nabokov

24. “It’s not the music is too imprecise for words but too precise.” — Felix Mendelssohn

25. “here is no competition of sounds/Between a nightingale and a violin.” — Dejan Stojanovic

26. “A novel is like a bow, and the violin that produces the sound is the reader’s soul.” — Stendhal

27. “Being content is perhaps no less easy than playing the violin well: and requires no less practice.” — Alain de Botton

28. “If you realize you are only a violin, you can open yourself up to the world by playing your role in the concert.” — Jacques Yves Cousteau

29. “An artistic statement rarely emerges from a vacuum. It grows out of some kernel of inspiration that eventually becomes an individual creation.” — Hilary Hahn

30. “If we were all determined to play the first violin, we should never have an ensemble. Therefore, respect every musician in his proper place.” — Robert Schumann

Quotes From Famous Violinists

These violin quotes are from famous violinists.

31. “The only downside to playing the violin is that you never know when you’re going to be asked to play.” — Charlie Siem

32. “Violinists’ hands aren’t the prettiest because of our nails and what our hands have to go through.” — Lindsey Stirling

33. “Practice with your fingers, and you need all day. Practice with your mind, and you will do as much in 1 1/2 hours.” — Leopold Auer

34. “I played the violin my whole life. I wanted to play from the time I was just a little kid, and I’ve always loved dance as well.” — Lindsey Stirling

35. “My father gave me my elementary lessons on the violin; in a very few months, I was able to play all manner of compositions at sight.” — Niccolo Paganini

36. “My parents played music and had it playing on the radio. They brought me to a concert at the age of 5, the same age I started violin lessons.” — Joshua Bell

37. “And a great deal of technical work has to be done before the great works of violin literature, the sonatas and concertos may be approached.” — Leopold Auer

38. “It is very unnatural to dance while playing the violin. I had to practice so hard to learn how to do it, but now it is part of my expression, and it comes naturally.” — Lindsey Stirling

39. “I approach everything as chamber music. Even with Beethoven symphonies, I lead from the violin and basically encourage the orchestra to think of it as a giant string quartet.” — Joshua Bell

40. “I do basically what a conductor does with a baton, except I also play along with the orchestra. So I have to juggle the roles of playing the concertmaster; sometimes I drop the violin and wave my arms.” — Joshua Bell

More Violin Quotes

Enjoy more violin quotes.

41. “If I’m playing a violin thing, for instance, I tend to respond to that sound with the way I finger.” — Andy Summers

42. “I actually wanted to play the violin before I had polio, and then afterward, there was no reason not to.” — Itzhak Perlman

43. “If I like dubstep and electronic, why don’t I make the violin fit me rather than making myself fit the violin?” — Lindsey Stirling

44. “I do use an electric violin. Actually, my regular electric violin, which I sometimes use, is by Ned Steinberger.” — Aleksey Igudesman

45. “With the violin, for example, one understands culturally that the sound comes from the instrument that can be seen.” — Jean-Michel Jarre

46. “I know a girl who cries when she practices violin because each note sounds so pure it just cuts into her, and then the melody comes pouring out her eyes.” — Conor Oberst

47. “I was classically trained. But more than just the fact that I play violin, there’s a lot of classical elements in the way I write, in the way I hear chords.” — Lindsey Stirling

48. “When I first wrote for orchestra, I didn’t realize, when you have 20 people playing a violin line, that is very different than one person playing that line.”

49. “I think when I was pretty young, I got really into the tone of my instrument, and I remember just playing one note for an hour to just kind of feel the resonance of the violin.” — Andrew Bird

50. “Since I first picked up the violin, I’ve been very interested in tone and texture: I would have very visceral reactions to the texture of a snare drum or a pedal steel guitar or a violin.” — Andrew Bird