Blues are the songs of despair.

Faith and prayer are the vitamins of the soul; man cannot live in health without them.

Gospel music rhythms are not African in origin, although I know that's what the jazz experts say.

When you sing gospel you have a feeling there is a cure for what's wrong.

It is easy to be independent when you've got money. But to be independent when you haven't got a thing, that's the Lord's test.

Man has no nobler function than to defend the truth.

God can make you anything you want to be, but you have to put everything in his hands.

Baby, black promoters oppressed me before white promoters ever got hold of me. Don't talk skin to me.

Gospel songs are the songs of hope. When you sing gospel you have the feeling there is a cure for what's wrong, but when you are through with the blues, you've got nothing to rest on.

I sing God's music because it makes me feel free. It gives me hope. With the blues, when you finish, you still have the blues.

Without a song, each day would be a century.

In order to write the book you want to write, in the end you have to become the person you need to become to write that book.

Let's still be friends" (things that are never true in a break up, but you have to say).

I'd prefer to be alone by myself, than alone in a room full of people.

The Savior isn't our last chance He is our only chance. Our only chance to overcome self-doubt and catch a vision of who we may become. Our only chance to repent and have our sins washed clean.

I'm not irreplaceable ... I'm nothing but grass growing on the ground; when the grass dies, another one replaces it.

There is no fundamental difference in the ways of thinking of primitive and civilized man. A close connection between race and personality has never been established.

...when everything else fails, we communicate in the language of the stars

Death, that final evil, is one of the paths to eternity. Endless life in the conditions of our existence would be a nightmare.

Don't wait till you get bigger to put in place key items, such as staff surveys, peer interviewing for hiring and clear standards of behavior [developed by staff].

I don't want to be home just taking medicine and waiting to die, you know? That's not something I'm about.