From childhood I was passionately fond of music and wanted to be a musician. I have no recollection of any real desire ever to be anything else.

The red and white and starry blue Is freedom's shield and hope.

I am happy now, to recall that I was not only his son but his companion, and whenever there was a hunting expedition or any other pleasure, I was always with him.

Dance as though no one is watching. Love as though you've never been hurt. Sing as though no one can hear you. Live as though heaven is on earth.

Anybody can write music of a sort. But touching the public heart is quite another thing.

A band is only as good as its euphonium section.

I have always believed that 98% of a student's progress is due to his own efforts, and 2% to his teacher.

Remember always that the composer's pen is still mightier than the bow of the violinist; in you lie all the possibilities of the creation of beauty.

There is one thing that freezes a musician more than the deadliest physical cold, and that is the spiritual chill of an unresponsive audience!

Jazz will endure just as long people hear it through their feet instead of their brains.

Any composer who is gloriously conscious that he is a composer must believe that he receives his inspiration from a source higher than himself.

She had the wild look of someone who hadn’t slept in twenty-four hours, with purplish semicircles underneath both her eyes. Being eighteen was like being made out of rubber and cocaine.

There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.

The spirit is what guides my life, and I'm humbly on my knees in thanks for guidance and direction every day. But God is not something to be preached, it's something to be lived.

The gift of the Holy Ghost operates equally with men, women, and even little children. It is within this wondrous gift and power that the spiritual remedy to any problem can be found.

A display of reason rather than a threat of force should be the determining factor in the intercourse among nations.

The newspapers print what the people want, and thus does the savage still swing his club and flourish his spear.

Truth out of season was sourer than strawberries at Christmas time.

I don't see why a poem couldn't be spoken out a car window or written on the beach at low tide. In fact, I'm sure people are doing it.

I tell you in truth: all men are Prophets or else God does not exist.

...there is power in self-sacrifice.