James Brown Quotations

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

I just thank God for all of the blessings.

My expectations of other people, I double them on myself.

When I'm on stage, I'm trying to do one thing: bring people joy. Just like church does. People don't go to church to find trouble, they go there to lose it.

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

Michael Jackson has a very good heart. He was crying when he was giving me the award, 'cause his mind went back over the early days.

You can't teach others if you are living the same way.

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.

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

I'm kidding about having only a few dollars. I might have a few dollars more.

I want to say to you: Help yourself, so you can help someone else.

The hardest thing about being James Brown is I have to live. I don't have no down time.

I was stillborn. The midwives laid me aside, thought I was really gone. I laid there about an hour, and they picked me back up and tried again, 'cause my body was still warm. The Good Lord brought me back.

I got a wife who likes expensive things, so she takes all the cash.

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

I'm not going to be joining ZZ Top. You know they can't play my stuff. It's too complicated.

Like Christ said, love thee one another. I learned to do that, and I learned to respect and be appreciative and thankful for what I had.

Sometimes I feel like I'm a preacher as well, 'cause I can really get into an audience.

I used to think like Moses. That knocked me down for a couple years and put me in prison. Then I start thinking like Job. Job waited and became the wealthiest and richest man ever 'cause he believed in God.

You can take care of yourself, and God helps those who help themselves.

I've been held responsible for taxes I know nothing about.

I've been knocked down a lot of times.

I did the thing with bonds, which was about 30 million dollars, and didn't get none of the money on them.

I started Michael years ago. I saw him in Gary, Indiana, and we'd have him on the talent shows. He kind of emulated me, and did the best he could.

I think the best thing about being James Brown is looking at my little son. Hopefully I can make my son a role model to a lot of people.

My son don't have to say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud. He don't have to be called those crazy names.

When God took it, he accepted it; when he brought it back, he accepted it. That's what's happening with me.

I had to tell about my colonic, which expresses the fact why I'm so neat today as opposed to a few years ago. I never knew that the weight made that much difference.

I think what I came through is great, but my son can take it to another level, not having to fight racism. His mother's a Norwegian and I'm mixed up four or five times, so he can face the world.

I'd like to cut down on the work a little bit.

This is an area that the chain stores don't bother with. We provide a personal service to the individual looking for a particular book. It may take us a while and a lot of research but we usually deliver.

In our advanced technological age, most people deny the possibility of miracles.... Miracles don't happen, we are told, because they contravene the laws of nature and worse, they sound religious! Yet we live and move in a sea of miracle.

Papa didn't cuss, he didn't raise a whole lot of fuss. But when we did wrong, Papa beat the hell out of us.

For goodness sake, look at those cakes.

This is a revolution of the mind, get your mind together and get away from drugs.

Take those kids and raise them up, teach them how to drink out of a righteous cup.

The white horse of heroin will ride you to hell.

Some like them fat, some like them tall, some like them short, skinny legs and all. I like them all.

What everybody's looking for today, they're looking for escape-ism.

I'd rather be Jack be smart, than Jack be quick. Watch out for the man with the big fat licking stick.

Everybody over there, get on up. Everybody out there, get into it. Everybody right there, get involved.

If you don't get it the first time, back up and try it again.

Get on up, stay on the scene, get on up, like a sex machine.

Thank God for the journey.

I'm the most sampled and stolen. What's mine is mine, and what's yours is mine, too... I got a song about that... But I'm never gonna release it. Don't want a war with the rappers. If it wasn't good, they wouldn't steal it.

Got ants in my pants and I need to dance, so big fine mama, come give me a chance.

You got to live for yourself, yourself and nobody else.

I don't know karate, but I know crazy.

When I'm on stage, I'm trying to do one thing: bring people joy.

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.

It's a Man's Man's Man's World

I'm twice as old, but I feel good.

I used to play one job and have 125 pair of shoes on the floor. What was I doing? I couldn't wear but one pair.

Our silence is deafening and deadly.

I've outdone anyone you can name - Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Strauss. Irving Berlin, he wrote 1,001 tunes. I wrote 5,500.

I'm a ghetto man who made good. I never forgot where I came from and who put me on top - God and Jack The Rapper.

You're like a dull knife, it just ain't cutting.

I don't really care what people think, ... I just do my own thing. ... I like being loud and letting people know I'm there.

Thank God that I had the ability to understand that I had a different beat and that I was a drummer.

Sometimes, you like to let the hair do the talking!

Music has to breathe and sweat. You have to play it live.

Takes a man or a woman to say I'm sorry, and it takes a fool to walk away.

You're like a dull knife, just ain't cuttin', just talkin' loud and saying nothing

When you touch me, good God.

Tell the politicians and the hustlers: live and let live.

Music, it requires more than brawn. It requires a lot of heart. You gotta put love in there.

I don't know karate, but I know ka-razy!

It doesn't matter how you travel it, it's the same road. It doesn't get any easier when you get bigger, it gets harder. And it will kill you if you let it.

We can never be like it was at Penn State with Joe Paterno. That was an anomaly in an of itself.

Don't let nobody take care of your business better than you.

Money won't change you, but time will take you out.

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

As I always said, if people wanted to know who James Brown is, all they have to do is listen to my music.

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

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

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

Don't terrorize. Organize. Don't burn. Give kids a chance to learn . . . The real answer to race problems in this country is education. Not burning and killing. Be ready. Be qualified. Own something. Be somebody. That's Black Power.

The financial sector is recovering nicely. Wall Street has been reporting record profits and doing lots of mergers and acquisitions, so they're certainly adding to the local economy.