“Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter.”
Permalink: John Keats
About this quote
Keats is contrasting the imagined song of the immortal urn with the melodies a mortal listener actually hears. The line is his argument for valuing what cannot be fully grasped, which is the argument of the whole ode.
Source: "Ode on a Grecian Urn"