harmony (n.)

All that is harmony for thee, O Universe, is in harmony with me as well. Nothing that comes at the right time for thee is too early or too late for me. Everything is fruit to me that thy seasons bring, O Nature. All things come of thee, have their being in thee, and return to thee.

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 a d): Meditations. iv. 23.

As sweet and musical

As bright Apollo's lute, strung with his hair;

And when Love speaks, the voice of all the gods

Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Love's Labour's Lost. Act iv. Sc. 3.

From harmony, from heavenly harmony,

This universal frame began:

From harmony to harmony

Through all the compass of the notes it ran,

The diapason closing full in Man.

John Dryden (1631-1701): A Song for St. Cecilia's Day. Line 11.

Untwisting all the chains that tie

The hidden soul of harmony.

John Milton (1608-1674): L'Allegro. Line 143.

Oh, could you view the melody

Of every grace

And music of her face,

You 'd drop a tear;

Seeing more harmony

In her bright eye

Than now you hear.

Richard Lovelace (1618-1658): Orpheus to Beasts.

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!

Here we will sit and let the sounds of music

Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night

Become the touches of sweet harmony.

Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven

Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold:

There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st

But in his motion like an angel sings,

Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins.

Such harmony is in immortal souls;

But whilst this muddy vesture of decay

Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Merchant of Venice. Act v. Sc. 1.

The tongues of dying men

Enforce attention like deep harmony.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Richard II. Act ii. Sc. 1.

All nature is but art, unknown to thee;

All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;

All discord, harmony not understood;

All partial evil, universal good;

And spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,

One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 289.

What the discordant harmony of circumstances would and could effect.

Horace (65-8 b c): Epistles, i. 12, 19.

That air and harmony of shape express,

Fine by degrees, and beautifully less.

Matthew Prior (1664-1721): Henry and Emma.

You had that action and counteraction which, in the natural and in the political world, from the reciprocal struggle of discordant powers draws out the harmony of the universe.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797): Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 277.

Of Law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world. All things in heaven and earth do her homage,—the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power.

Richard Hooker (1553-1600): Ecclesiastical Polity. Book i.

Sentimentally I am disposed to harmony; but organically I am incapable of a tune.

Charles Lamb (1775-1834): A Chapter on Ears.