Could we not imagine that noise...is itself nothing more than the sum — Sound

"I have for a long time been of opinion that the quantity of noise anyone can comfortably endure is in inverse proportion to his mental powers, and may therefore be regarded as a rough estimate of them. Therefore, when I hear dogs barking unchecked for hours in the courtyard of a house, I know what to think of the mental powers of the inhabitants. The man who habitually slams doors instead of shutting them with the hand, or allows this to be done in his house, is not merely ill-mannered, but also coarse and narrow-minded."

"Carpenters and ironworkers shops are dominated by the heavier sounds of machinery and occasional yells across the floor; in goldsmiths shops the silences are punctuated by more delicate work noises, but the apprentices sullen silence and the artisans grim absorption in the work at hand are, if anything, more oppressive, although there may be a little amiable banter between a master goldsmith and an older apprentice clearly already in possession of advanced technical skills."

"Trust your ears: Meters and scopes are tools, but if it sounds right in context, it probably is. Let what you hear guide you more than any readout."

"If a tree falls in a forest, and no-one is around to hear it, does it make a noise?"

"Now I will do nothing but listen, To accrue what I hear into this song, to let sounds contribute toward it."

"To all proportioned terms he must dispense And make the sound a picture of the sense."