Those who dance are considered insane by those who cannot hear the music.

The aphorism suggests that what looks like irrational behavior may be perfectly coherent within a context others cannot perceive. “Music” stands for an inner logic—values, knowledge, or experience—that guides action; without access to it, observers misread the dancer’s movements as madness. The line is often used to defend nonconformity and to critique majority judgment: social consensus can pathologize difference when it lacks the interpretive tools to understand it. It also implies an ethical caution—before condemning someone’s choices, consider whether you are missing the frame of reference that makes them meaningful.