D. Simone Quotes

It is a fault to wish to be understood before we have made ourselves clear to ourselves.

The sea is not less beautiful in our eyes because we know that sometimes ships are wrecked by it.

I believe in racial memory too. I'm sure I've got ancient African blood in me that has something to do with what I am.

Desegregation is a joke.

There is only one good. And that is to act according to the dictates of one's conscience.

To die for God is not a proof of faith in God. To die for an unknown and repulsive convict who is a victim of injustice, that is a proof of faith in God.

Every sin is an attempt to fly from emptiness.

Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.

It was easier for me to think of a world without a creator than of a creator loaded with all the contradictions of the world.

Man is defined as a human being and a woman as a female - whenever she behaves as a human being she is said to imitate the male.

Once I understood Bach's music, I wanted to be a concert pianist. Bach made me dedicate my life to music, and it was that teacher who introduced me to his world.

A man attaches himself to woman -- not to enjoy her, but to enjoy himself.

I suffer more from the humiliations inflicted by my country than from those inflicted on her.

Funk, gospel, blues is all out of slavery times, out of depression, out of sorrow.

From the very beginning, existentialism defined itself as a philosophy of ambiguity.

To abstain from politics is in itself a political attitude.

Expectations make people miserable, so whatever yours are, lower them. You'll definitely be happier.

Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.

Love is not consolation, it is light.

How can you be an artist and not reflect the times?

Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music.

I think the rich will eventually have to cave in too, because the economic situation around the world is not gonna tolerate the United States being on top forever.

It is in great part the anxiety of being a woman that devastates the feminine body.

The nearer I come to the end of my days, the more I am enabled to see that strange thing, a life, and to see it whole.

Life is occupied in both perpetuating itself and in surpassing itself; if all it does is maintain itself, then living is only not dying.

To be oneself, simply oneself, is so amazing and utterly unique an experience that it's hard to convince oneself so singular a thing happens to everybody.

Through music you can become sad, joyful, loving, you can learn. You can learn mathematics, touch, pacing... Oh my God! Ooh... Wow... You can see colors through music. Anything!

I think the rich are too rich and the poor are too poor. I don't think the black people are going to rise at all; I think most of them are going to die.

Thank you guys for believing in my ability and supporting me in my Olympic journey.

I take on a shape and an existence only if I first throw myself into the world by loving, by doing.

You are the one girl that made me risk eveything for a future worth having.

It is in the knowledge of the genuine conditions of our lives that we must draw our strength to live and our reasons for living.

In struggling against anguish one never produces serenity; the struggle against anguish only produces new forms of anguish.

Difficult as it is really to listen to someone in affliction, it is just as difficult for him to know that compassion is listening to him.

The beauty of the world is Christ's tender smile for us coming through matter.

What is surprising is not that oppression should make its appearance only after higher forms of economy have been reached, but that it should always accompany them.

Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their own point of view, which they confuse with the absolute truth.

To be a hero or a heroine, one must give an order to oneself.

I'm sorry that I did not become the world's first black classic pianist. I think I would have been happier.

Every day has its emotional difficulties. I miss my mother whether I'm singing her music or not.

It feels amazing to inspire little kids to want to do gymnastics and have fun with it.

To give space when what one most yearns for is closeness, that is both the great test and great tragedy of love.

My singing, if you want to call it that is merely another medium of expression. Just an instrument I play. That's how I see my voice.

You have never had any confidence in him. And if he has no confidence in himself it is because he sees himself through your eyes.

I demand perfection in what I do, and I practice very hard before I give a concert-sometimes three to six hours a day.

I am particular about the seating of the audience - also about how much money they pay - but most of all where they are seated. If I am going to sing something intimate, who am I going to sing it to?

I wish I could turn back time, but I can't. I made a stupid decision because I thought I was invincible, and I'll pay for it the rest of my life.

It is an eternal obligation toward the human being not to let him suffer from hunger when one has a chance of coming to his assistance.

There is something in the New York air that makes sleep useless.

To most white people, jazz means black and jazz means dirt, and that's not what I play. I play black classical music.