"Just How Much Impact Does Music Have?   In 1703, Andrew Fletcher, a great Scottish patriot, made this observation (and I paraphrase him):

'You write the laws, let me write the music, and I will rule your country.'"

        "Music enhances every situation of our lives.  During difficult times, music makes the burden easier.  In happy times, music enhances our happiness.  And as Elder Boyd K. Packer notes,  'We are able to feel and learn very quickly through music, through art, through poetry some spiritual things that we would otherwise learn very slowly.'  As we allow it, the Spirit of the Lord does soften and tune our hearts through worthy music."

“We get nearer to the Lord through music than perhaps through any other thing except prayer.”

 “If you will show me the songs which a people or a community sing, then I will tell you the character of that community. “

"I wonder sometimes if we realize the importance of music. I wonder if we know that the Lord himself is concerned about it. He has given us the information that the song of praise is a prayer unto him.… I would like to call attention to the fact that in our day our Heavenly Father has given a revelation, teaching us that it is our privilege, yea, our blessing, to sing, and that our songs should be sung in righteousness."

"Now, I know that some young people resent it a little when we comment upon such things as the wild music that is served up nowadays.

Can you not see that you are not going to get much inspiration while your mind is filled with that?

The right kind of music, on the other hand, can prepare you to receive inspiration."

        "Good music, especially sacred music, makes spiritual things more understandable.  It is edifying and conducive to understanding.  It prepares emotions for response to promptings of the Holy Spirit."

  "Some of the greatest sermons that have ever been preached were preached by the singing of a song."

 “The most effective preaching of the gospel is when it is accompanied by beautiful appropriate music.”

       “Through music, man’s ability to express himself extends beyond the limits of the spoken language in both subtlety and power.  Music can be used to exalt and inspire or to carry messages of degradation and destruction.  It is therefore important that as Latter-day Saints we at all times apply the principles of the gospel and seek the guidance of the Spirit in selecting the music with which we surround ourselves.”              (Priesthood Bulletin, August, 1973)

"Music," said Gladstone, "is one of the most forceful instruments for governing the mind and spirit of man."