Top 131 Quotes & Sayings by Martha Graham

Misery is a communicable disease.

First we have to believe, and then we believe.

The body is your instrument in dance, but your art is outside that creature, the body.

The only sin is mediocrity.

Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.

Dance is the hidden language of the soul of the body.

Censorship is the height of vanity.

You are unique, and if that is not fulfilled, then something has been lost.

Every dance is a kind of fever chart, a graph of the heart.

Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can.

We learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. One becomes in some area an athlete of God.

The body is a sacred garment.

The body says what words cannot.

I did not want to be a tree, a flower or a wave. In a dancer's body, we as audience must see ourselves, not the imitated behavior of everyday actions, not the phenomenon of nature, not exotic creatures from another planet, but something of the miracle that is a human being.

No artist is ahead of his time. He is his time; it is just that others are behind the times.

Learn by practice.

Nothing is more revealing than movement.

To me, a building - if it's beautiful - is the love of one man, he's made it out of his love for space, materials, things like that.

'Age' is the acceptance of a term of years. But maturity is the glory of years.

Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion.

The body never lies.

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.

Think of the magic of that foot, comparatively small, upon which your whole weight rests. It's a miracle, and the dance is a celebration of that miracle.

Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.

Theater is a verb before it is a noun, an act before it is a place.

Repetition not for monotony but the ecstasy it induces.

I am absorbed in the magic of movement and light. Movement never lies. It is the magic of what I call the outer space of the imagination.

Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance. Great dancers are great because of their passion.

In the end, it all comes down to the art of breathing.

A dancer, more than any other human being, dies two deaths: the first, the physical when the powerfully trained body will no longer respond as you would wish. After all, I choreographed for myself. I never choreographed what I could not do. I changed steps in Medea and other ballets to accommodate the change. But I knew. And it haunted me. I only wanted to dance.

The body is a sacred garment. It's your first and last garment; it is what you enter life in and what you depart life with, and it should be treated with honor.

Dancing appears glamorous, easy, delightful. But the path to paradise of the achievement is not easier than any other. There is fatigue so great that the body cries, even in its sleep. There are times of complete frustration, there are daily small deaths.

I get up, I fall down, all the while I am dancing.

Dancers are the messengers of the gods.

Dance is the hidden langauge of the soul, of the body.

What people in the world think of you is really none of your business.

My dancing is not an attempt to interpret life in the literary sense. It is an affirmation of life through movement.

I am certain that movement never lies. There is only one law of posture I have been able to discover - the perpendicular line connecting heaven and earth.

All that is important is this one moment in movement. Make the moment important, vital, and worth living. Do not let it slip away unnoticed and unused.

I believe that we learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. In each, it is the performance of a dedicated precise set of acts, physical or intellectual, from which comes shape of achievement, a sense of one's being, a satisfaction of spirit. One becomes, in some area, an athlete of God. Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.

No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a strange, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.

Our arms start from the back because they were once wings.

Art is eternal for it reveals the inner landscape which is the soul of man.

You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.

There is a force, a quickness that is translated through you into action. If you block it, the world will not have it.

I feel that the essence of dance is the expression of man--the landscape of his soul. I hope that every dance I do reveals something of myself or some wonderful thing a human can be.

The spine is the tree of life. Respect it.

People have asked me why I chose to be a dancer. I did not choose. I was chosen to be a dancer, and with that, you live all your life.

I believe that dance was the first art. A philosopher has said that dance and architecture were the first arts. I believe that dance was first because it's gesture, it's communication. That doesn't mean it's telling a story, but it means it's communicating a feeling, a sensation to people.

When you start with an idea, or something hits you, then you have to follow that through to the end, and it's the following through to the end that makes the pattern. That, for me, is choreography.

Movement never lies. It is a barometer telling the state of the soul's weather to all who can read it.

We are all of us, unique - each a unique pattern of creativity and if we do not fulfill it, it is lost for all time.

Dance is communication, and so the great challenge is to speak clearly, beautifully and with inevitability.

Stand up! Keep your backs straight! Remember that this is where the wings grow.

Freedom to a dancer means discipline. That is what technique is for -- liberation.

The reason dance has held such an ageless magic for the world is that it has been the symbol of the performance of living.

The secret to dancing is that it is about everything except dancing.

There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium, and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.

The world I'm interested in is the one where things are not named.

The main thing, of course, always, is the fact that there is only one of you in the world, just one, and if that is not fulfilled then something has been lost. Ambition is not enough; necessity is everything.