Will Davis Quotes

I worked night and day for twelve years to prevent the war, but I could not. The North was mad and blind, would not let us govern ourselves, and so the war came.

Real success is not on the stage, but off the stage as a human being, and how you get along with your fellow man.

I find, in being black, a thing of beauty: a joy; a strength; a secret cup of gladness.

The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas.

If there was a volcano under their feet, a Vesuvius that could erupt and bury this modern-day Pompeii at any moment, the best thing to do was dance on it.

The ultimate mystery is one's own self.

After I decided to become a Jew, only then did I learn that the Jews don't have all the money. When I found out Rockefeller and Ford were goyim, I almost resigned.

It's a rare man who can stand being around an intelligent woman, let alone married to her.

They say...the stopwatch never lies. Speed kills but absolute speed kills absolutely.

It takes a long time to sound like yourself.

You know what nostalgia is, don't you? It's basically a matter of recalling the fun without reliving the pain.

My ego only needs a good rhythm section

White folks always think that you have to have a label on everything - you know what I mean?

They say a good man is worth fighting for. But a man who's good for YOU shouldn't make you fight just for the right to be in his life.

We are indeed much more than what we eat, but what we eat can nevertheless help us to be much more than what we are.

I like Stan [Getz], because he has so much patience, the way he plays those melodies - other people can't get nothing out of a song, but he can, which takes a lot of imagination.

Archery is something that I took up later and didn't know I had a natural aptitude for.

The greatness of the Raiders lies in their future.

What's swinging in words? If a guy makes you pat your foot and if you feel it down your back, you don't have to ask anybody if that's good music or not. You can always feel it.

It has been my experience that one cannot, in any shape or form, depend on human relations for lasting reward. It is only work that truly satisfies.

At least one day out of the year all musicans should just put their instruments down, and give thanks to Duke Ellington.

The past is dead; let it bury its dead, its hopes and its aspirations; before you lies the future-a future full of golden promise.

It took me twenty years study and practice to work up to what I wanted to play in this performance. How can she expect to listen five minutes and understand it?

I don't pay no attention to what critics say about me, the good or the bad. The toughest critic I got is myself...and I'm too vain to play anything I think is bad.

I don’t want anyone putting any limits on me.

It is our duty to keep the memory of our heroes green. Yet they belong to the whole country; they belong to America.

As I see it every day you do one of two things: build health or produce disease in yourself.

A helluva athlete, the best ever to play his position in the history of the game.

I never thought Jazz was meant to be a museum piece like other dead things once considered artistic.

You know why I quit playing ballads? Cause I love playing ballads.

Talk about handicap - I'm a one-eyed Negro Jew.

Don't play what's there, play what's not there.

Jesus wrecked my life, shattered it to pieces, and put it back together more beautifully.

History will dictate what my legacy is. And 'maverick' is fine, because I am.

Imprisonment has become the response of first resort to far too many of our social problems.

To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor, to be given a chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life. The money is the gravy.

My father's rich, my momma's good looking. Right? And I can play the Blues. I've never suffered and don't intend to suffer.

There are no wrong notes in jazz: only notes in the wrong places.

Savor the moments that are warm and special and giggly.

You have to practice for a long time before you can learn to sound like yourself

Being a star has made it possible for me to get insulted in places where the average Negro could never hope to get insulted.

A legend is an old man with a cane known for what he used to do. I'm still doing it.

Lay aside all rancor, all bitter sectional feeling, and to make your places in the ranks of those who will bring about a consummation devoutly to be wished—a reunited country.

It's not the notes you play, it's the notes you don't play.

My talent was the weapon, the power, the way for me to fight. It was the one way I might hope to affect a man's thinking.

It is quite annoying that we have to change the sound we invented just to avoid sounding like people who simply copy us, but... it is flattering and of course challenging.

There was more good acting at Hollywood parties than ever appeared on the screen.

I don't have any time to stay up all night worrying about what someone who doesn't love me has to say about me.

Ignorance breeds fear. If you don't keep that fear in check, that fear will breed hatred. If you don't keep hatred in check it will breed destruction.

No march, movement, or agenda that defines manhood in the narrowest terms and seeks to make women lesser partners in this quest for equality can be considered a positive step.