If you still have to ask, shame on you

Every time I close my eyes blowing that trumpet of mine, I look right into the heart of good old New Orleans. It has given me something to live for.

Musicians don't retire; they stop when there's no more music in them.

Don't do nothing halfway, else you find yourself dropping more than can be picked up.

What we play is life.

I got a simple rule about everybody. If you don't treat me right - shame on you.

If I don’t practice for a day, I know it. If I don’t practice for two days, the critics know it. And if I don’t practice for three days, the public knows it.

Each man has his own music bubbling up inside him.

And I think to myself what a wonderful world. Oh, yeah.

If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know.

A lotta cats copy the Mona Lisa, but people still line up to see the original.

I never felt so fervently thankful, so soothed, so tranquil, so filled with a blessed peace, as I did yesterday when I learned that Michael Angelo was dead.

The fear of death is why we build cathedrals, have children, declare war, and watch cat videos online at three a.m.

I forbid you, agnostic, doubting thoughts, to destroy the house of my faith.

This is a very difficult assignment for the United States, to hang in there and help this young democracy survive.

The record of a month's roulette playing at Monte Carlo can afford us material for discussing the foundations of knowledge.

A leader is one who... Has more faith in people than they do, and . . . who holds opportunities open long enough for their competence to re-emerge.

Others see their possibility in the reality of you. Your message is your life lived.

Generosity is only benevolence in practice.

The man who is successful is the man who is useful.