With sincere modesty, if there is such a thing, I have never thought of legacy at all. I am always grateful if people like what I have done. A legacy is something no one can forsee.

My Dad died during the flu epidemic in 1918 when I was 4 years old. He left a lot of classical recordings behind that I began listening to at an early age, so he must have been a music lover.

I'm afraid I talk a lot, too much, perhaps. I should have been a lawyer or a college professor or a windy politician, though I'm glad I am not any of these.

When people ask me what I do, strangers on a plane, perhaps, I tell them that I think. Thinking is excellent exercise, as much as swimming or jogging.

I have a great interest in a number of things, perhaps too many. I admire people who seem to concentrate on only one fixed discipline to the exclusion of almost everything else.

Participation, I think, or one of the best methods of educating.

They say poets write mostly for themselves; if anyone else likes it, well and good, if not, it doesn't matter; certainly, not to me.

I wrote the Brotherhood song for no money out of my deep feelings about humanity, and because I was flattered that whatever talents I had, had been recognized.

Most performers don't admit this, because it sounds negative and performers are not supposed to be negative, but when I was on the road, I was lonely.

When I listen to music today, it is about 99 percent classical. I rarely even listen to folk music, the music of my own specialty, because folk music is to me more limited than classical music.

I obtained a job at the Library of Congress. I loved books, so I felt at home. I was going to end up, I thought, majoring in English and teach at the college level.

Leisure is the handmaiden of the devil.

The difference between my world record and many world class runners is mental fortitude. I ran believing in mind over matter.

The work is the most important thing.

It is a reality attested by all history that if a republic assumes imperial functions it will not remain a republic.

I read a great number of press reports and find comfort in the fact that they are nearly always conflicting.

By the time you get a job, you know how to behave in a meeting or how to write a simple memo.

You don't want to vilify your ego.

To me, art supplies are always okay to buy.

No matter who or what we are, God restores us to right standing with Himself only by means of the death of Jesus Christ.

It is not a bad thing that children should occasionally, and politely, put parents in their place.