Retire for what? What would I do? I made my name as a person that is helping. I'm like Moses in the music business.

The one thing that can solve most of our problems is dancing.

Hair is the first thing. And teeth the second. Hair and teeth. A man got those two things he's got it all.

I Don’t Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing (Open Up the Door, I'll Get It Myself)

I named my new son James Joseph Brown II. I think he's going to be a lot better than I was.

I only got a seventh-grade education, but I have a doctorate in funk, and I like to put that to good use

Sometimes you struggle so hard to feed your family one way, you forget to feed them the other way, with spiritual nourishment. Everybody needs that.

My music wasn't written by Mozart, Beethoven, Bach or Schubert. It's written by God and me. They go "a one and a two and up." We start on the downbeat. Bam! And that's where we got them.

I've got soul and I'm super bad.

You got to use what you got to get just what you want.

I taught them everything they know, but not everything I know.

A desire and a goal not to be subservient to another or to be in charge of one’s life is a good thing to do.

A little learning, indeed, may be a dangerous thing, but the want of learning is a calamity to any people.

Life's too short to worry about injecting botulism into your face to get rid of a tiny line because you've laughed too much. To me, that's a bit warped.

I like to create the music I hear in my interior. As a conductor, you have the ability to squeeze the sounds and interpretation you asked for from 50 to 80 people.

Oceania was at war with Eurasia; therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia.

Your dead sleep quietly, at least, Captain, out of reach of sharks" "Yes, sir, of sharks and men.

I can no longer obey; I have tasted command, and I cannot give it up.

Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed.

Speak your mind, but ride a fast horse.

I was very close to my mother as the youngest of three. She was my playmate.