My idea is that there is music in the air, music all around us; the world is full of it, and you simply take as much as you require.

Music is what feelings sound like.

A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.

When you come to the end of all the light you know, and it’s time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: Either you will be given something solid to stand on or you will be taught to fly.

I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, “I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.” … You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

Never give in! Never give in! Never, never, never. Never — in anything great or small, large or petty — never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.

Avoiding the phrase “I don’t have time…”, will soon help you to realize that you do have the time needed for just about anything you choose to accomplish in life.

All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.

The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.

I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.

If you suck on a tit the movie gets an R rating. If you hack the tit off with an axe it will be PG.

We train our children to drop fire on people, but we won’t let them write ‘fuck’ on the sides of their airplanes, because it’s obscene.

A witty saying proves nothing.

There was never a good war or a bad peace.

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.

Just because you like my stuff doesn’t mean I owe you anything.

The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I’m just not close enough to get the job done.

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.

One of the more distracting things about capitalist culture is that there is no stupor, no time to vegetate. What I would suggest is more time wasting, less stimulation. We need time to lie fallow like we did in childhood, so we can recuperate. Rather than be constantly told what you want and be pressurised to go after it, I think we would benefit greatly from vaguely restless boredom in which desire can crystallise.

The trouble with music appreciation in general is that people are taught to have too much respect for music. They should be taught to love it instead.

Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music.