Duke Ellington Quotes

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

There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.

There are 2 rules in life: Number 1- Never quit Number2- Never forget rule number 1.

Put it this way: Jazz is a good barometer of freedom... In its beginnings, the United States of America spawned certain ideals of freedom and independence through which, eventually, jazz was evolved, and the music is so free that many people say it is the only unhampered, unhindered expression of complete freedom yet produced in this country.

A goal is a dream with a finish line.

Music, of course, is what I hear and something that I more or less live by. It's not an occupation or profession, it's a compulsion.

Be a number one yourself. And not a number two somebody else.

The most important thing I look for in a musician is whether he knows how to listen.

If you have a great band with a mediocre drummer, you have a mediocre band. If you have a mediocre band with a great drummer, you have a great band!

It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing.

There are two kinds of worries - those you can do something about and those you can't. Don't spend any time on the latter.

Everyone prays in their own language, and there is no language that God does not understand.

You have to stop listening in categories. The music is either good or it's bad.

The common root, of course, comes out of Africa. That's the pulse.The African pulse. It's all the way back from . . . the old slave chants and up through the blues, the jazz, and up through rock. And it's all got the African pulse.

Create, and be true to yourself, and depend only on your own good taste.

Simplicity is a most complex form

If it sounds good and feels good, then it IS good!

How can anyone expect to be understood unless he presents his thoughts with complete honesty? This situation is unfair because it asks too much of the world. In effect, we say, ' I don't dare show you what I am because I don't trust you for a minute but please love me anyway because I so need you to. And, of course, if you don't love me anyway, you're a dirty dog, just as I suspected, so I was right in the first place.' Yet, every time God's children have thrown away fear in pursuit of honesty-trying to communicate themselves, understood or not, miracles have happened.

Music is the tonal reflection of beauty.

Love is supreme and unconditional; like is nice but limited.

The artist must say it without saying it.

Problems are chances for us to do our best.

There is no art without intention.

You've got to find a way of saying it without saying it.

The wise musicians are those who play what they can master.