Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Marcus Aurelius on life

"In a word, thy life is short. Thou must turn to profit the present by the aid of reason and justice. Be sober in thy relaxation... pass through the rest of life like one who has intrusted to the gods with his whole soul all that he has, making thyself neither the tyrant nor the slave of any man."

-- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Part IV, Paragraphs 26 and 31

Churchill on appeasers

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."

--Winston Churchill

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Wiesel on neutrality

"Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."

-- Elie Wiesel

Friday, May 18, 2007

Quotes from musicians

"Affirmative music was just a thought I had to myself that I could sing something and get people to listen, and maybe they would be better to one another."

-- Pops Staples


"There is a view that jazz is 'evil' because it comes from evil people, but actually the greatest priests on 52nd Street and on the streets of New York City were the musicians. They were doing the greatest healing work. They knew how to punch through music that would cure and make people feel good."

-- Garth Hudson, The Last Waltz, The Band


“Maybe the words that I say is just another way to pray.”

“Our purpose is to educate as well as to entertain.”

“Painless preaching is as good a term as any for what we do.”

-- Curtis Mayfield


"Music is my religion."

"Excuse me while I kiss the sky."

"I try to use my music to move these people to act."

"Music doesn't lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music."

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace."

"White collar conservative flashin down the street, pointing that plastic finger at me, they all assume my kind will drop and die, but I'm gonna wave my freak flag high."

"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens."

"Music is a safe type of high. It's more the way it was supposed to be. That's where highness came, I guess, from anyway. It's nothing but rhythm and motion."

"Blues is easy to play, but hard to feel."

"When I die, just keep playing the records."

-- Jimi Hendrix


"All a musician can do is to get closer to the sources of nature, and so feel that he is in communion with the natural laws."

"You can play a shoestring if you're sincere."

-- John Coltrane


"Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn't want me to be too famous too young."

"Gray skies are just clouds passing over."

"A problem is a chance for you to do your best."

"I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues."

"Roaming through the jungle of "oohs" and "ahs," searching for a more agreeable noise, I live a life of primitivity with the mind of a child and an unquenchable thirst for sharps and flats."

-- Duke Ellington


"It isn't where you came from, its where you're going that counts."

"Just don't give up on trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong."

-- Ella Fitzgerald


"Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius."

"I thank my God for graciously granting me the opportunity of learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness."

"I pay no attention whatever to anybody's praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings."

-- Mozart


"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy."

"Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life."

"Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes."

"Recommend to your children virtue; that alone can make them happy, not gold."

"This is the mark of a really admirable man: steadfastness in the face of trouble."

-- Beethoven


"Affluence separates people. Poverty knits 'em together. You got some sugar and I don't; I borrow some of yours. Next month you might not have any flour; well, I'll give you some of mine."

"My version of "Georgia" became the state song of Georgia. That was a big thing for me, man. It really touched me. Here is a state that used to lynch people like me suddenly declaring my version of a song as its state song. That is touching."

"There are many spokes on the wheel of life. First, we're here to explore new possibilities."

"What is a soul? It's like electricity -- we don't really know what it is, but it's a force that can light a room."

-- Ray Charles


"I found out that every person has their own movable C -- 'do.' When you put your sound or your idea into an arena mixed with other things -- if what you're saying has a valid place -- it's going to find its position in that total thing, and it's going to make that thing much better."

"For instance, if you were behind a closed door and I heard your voice, I would know it was you without seeing your face. But can you imagine if sound is that identifiable -- more than your face -- that's fantastic, right?"

"I never really relied upon them to keep time or rhythm for me. In fact, I always prefer musicians that play with me to play independent of myself but with me."

"He's speaking a certain language that I find is very valid in rhythm instruments. Very seldom in rhythm instruments do you hear rhythm sounding like a language."

"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something."

"You don't have to worry about being a number one, number two, or number three. Numbers don't have anything to do with placement. Numbers only have something to do with repetition."

"That's what I was trying to say when we were talking about sound. I think that every person, whether they play music or don't play music, has a sound -- their own sound, that thing that you're talking about. "

"I think that those elements -- light and sound -- are beyond democratic. They're into the creative part of life."

-- Ornette Coleman


"Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art."

-- Charlie "Bird" Parker


"There is two kinds of music, the good, and the bad. I play the good kind."

"The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Things like old folks singing in the moonlight in the back yard on a hot night or something said long ago."

"We all do 'do, re, mi,' but you have got to find the other notes yourself."

"What we play is life."

"You blows who you is."

-- Louis Armstrong

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Thought for the Day

"Life is just a chance to grow a soul."

— A. Powell Davies

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Thought for the Day

It is important to have an idealist’s heart. But in the end, act with a pragmatist’s head.