Famous Quotes

“They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.”

— Benjamin Franklin

“If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”

— James Madison, fourth US president

“Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.”

— John Lennon, English singer & songwriter (1940 - 1980)

“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.”

— Mark Twain, US humorist, novelist, short story author, & writer (1835 - 1910)

“Never argue with an idiot; they'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.”

— anonymous

“I remember being at Xerox at 1979. It was one of those sort of apocalyptic moments. I remember within ten minutes of seeing the graphical user interface stuff, just knowing that every computer would work this way some day; it was so obvious once you saw it. It didn’t require tremendous intellect. It was so clear.”

— Steve Jobs (Apple)

“I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.”

— Thomas Jefferson, third US president

“Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.”

— Frank Zappa

More quotes by Frank Zappa

“The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible.”

— George Washington's Farewell Address (1796)

“You’re born with a spark. ... to search for the truth, for the best you can be. Practice. Disipline. Preparation. Try and try again. Then one day you‘re on top and they say you‘re an overnight success, ” a “natural.” You smile, you know.”

— Anonymous

“The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all the people.”

— Noam Chomsky

“I haven't failed, I've found 10,000 ways that don't work.”

— Ben Franklin

“I tell the young security people, I say, 'You don't understand. I am nowhere near the threat I had hoped to become.'”

— Arlo D. Guthrie (at airport security checks)

“Press on: Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

— Calvin Coolidge, The 30th. President[1923-1929]

“There are three kinds of people: Those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who ask, 'What happened?'”

— Casey Stengel

“Press on: Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

— Calvin Coolidge, The 30th. President [1923-1929]

“Do what you can, with what you have, right where you are.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

“I tell the young security people, I say, 'You don't understand. I am nowhere near the threat I had hoped to become.'.”

— Arlo D. Guthrie (at airport security checks)

"For the guitar is the most unpredictable and least reliable musical instrument in existence...and also the sweetest, the warmest, the most delicate, whose melancholic voice awakes in our soul exquisite reveries."

— Andres Segovia

“Playing 'bop' is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.”

— Duke Ellington

“Indecision may or may not be my problem.”

— Jimmy Buffett

"Music, of all the liberal arts, has the greatest influence over the passions, and it is that to which the legislator ought to give the greatest encouragement."

— Napoleon Bonaparte

"I recommend you to think when at work, not only of the musical but also of the unmusical public. You know that for ten true connoisseurs there are a hundred ignoramuses! Do not neglect the so-called popular, which tickles long ears."

— Leopold Mozart (1719-87) Austrian violinist: advice to his son Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91)

"People who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, for the benefit of people who can't read."

— Frank Zappa On music journalists

More quotes by Frank Zappa

“If you don't practice one day, you'll know it. If you don't practice for two days, your friends and fellow musicians will know it. If you don't practice for three days, everyone in your audience knows it!.”

— Georg Van Eps

“Knowledge and intuition are both necessary. Either one, left out there too long on it's own, is going to falter.”

— Bill Evans

"There are no wrong notes, only wrong resolutions" "I think of all harmony as an expansion and a return to the tonic."

— Bill Evans

“I say play your own way. Don't play what the public wants. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you're doing even if it does take them fifteen, twenty years.”

— Thelonious Monk

“It’s taken me all my life to learn what not to play.”

— Dizzy Gillespie

“You’re born with a spark. ... to search for the truth, for the best you can be. Practice. Disipline. Preparation. Try and try again. Then one day you‘re on top and they say you‘re an overnight success, ” a “natural.” You smile, you know."”

— Anonymous

“Sometimes, you don't need a $5,000 guitar–you need $5,000 worth of lessons”

Chris Smithers

“Guitarists should be able to pick up the guitar and play music on it for an hour, without a rhythm section or anything.”

Joe Pass

“I think anything that separates guitar players from the rest of the music world is bad. Tablature is a certain secret code only for a guitar player. So you have guitar players who can read tablature and not music.”

Peter Bernstein

“It doesn't matter how much artistry one has; it's how it's presented that counts.”

Wes Montgomery

“The four ‘Ts’ [are] Time, Touch, Tone and Taste. Most of the players I seem to get the biggest thrill from have these pretty well covered”

Ted Greene

“I practice based on what my biggest problem is that day or that week. Whatever gives me problems, that goes to the top of the list. It changes from week to week”

Kenny Burrell

“For the guitar is the most unpredictable and least reliable musical instrument in existence...and also the sweetest, the warmest, the most delicate, whose melancholic voice awakes in our soul exquisite reveries.”

Andres Segovia

“There is no other instrument that possesses such a wide variety of sounds and tone colors. There is no other instrument that can be played so many different ways and offer itself so fully as a musical vehicle of expression. It transcends more idioms of music and is woven into a tapestry of more and varied cultures than any other one instrument. For some it can be played in a few days while others need to spend a life time perfecting their art, but in the guitar there is something for everyone. It is always fun for me to play the guitar whether playing for my own children or the largest audience on the concert stage. Somehow, I learn something new almost everytime I pick up the guitar. It opens up a new road everytime I put my hands on the strings.”

Barney Kessel

“Guitarists should be able to pick up the guitar and play music on it for an hour, without a rhythm section or anything.”

Joe Pass

“[Jazz is]  like playing tennis: You don’t start playing when you’re 25 years old and expect to reach the championship level. You have to start when you’re six.”

Jack Wilkins

“I remember the first time I heard Jimi Hendrix…He did things with an electric guitar that I hadn’t imagined, hadn’t thought possible. James Hill does that with the ‘ukulele.”

David Kidney, The Green Man Review

“The ukulele is a noble little instrument.. anyone serious about music will eventually come to play one.”

Bob Brozman