There [is] a feeling of recognition, as of meeting an old friend, which comes to us all in the face of great artistic experiences. I had the same experience when I first heard an English folksong, when I first saw Michelangelo's Day and Night, when I suddenly came upon Stonehenge or had my first sight of New York City - the intuition that I had been there already.
"R.V.W.: A Biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams". Book by Ursula Vaughan Williams, p. 30, "Musical Autobiography" (1950), 1964.
![There [is] a feeling of recognition, as of meeting an old friend, which comes to us all in the face of great artistic experiences. I had the same experience when I first heard an English folksong, when I first saw](http://cdn.quoteddaily.com/images/ralph-vaughan-williams/there-is-a-feeling-of-recognition-as-of-meeting-an-old-friend-which-comes-to-us-all-in-the-face.jpg)