Mahalia Jackson Quotations

Faith and prayer are the vitamins of the soul; man cannot live in health without them.

Without a song, each day would be a century.

Anybody singing the blues is in a deep pit yelling for help.

Sometimes you ask God for something and you don't know what you're asking.

When you sing gospel you have a feeling there is a cure for what's wrong.

It is easy to be independent when you've got money. But to be independent when you haven't got a thing, that's the Lord's test.

I close my eyes when I sing so I can feel the song better.

Blues are the songs of despair, but gospel songs are the songs of hope.

The old Devil gets mad when you're trying to do good. Pray that God will move the stumbling blocks.

The Lord doesn't like us to be dead. Be alive. Sometimes I dance to the glory of the Lord, because He said so.

I'll come to any benefit if I see SCLC get all the money.

Baby, black promoters oppressed me before white promoters ever got hold of me. Don't talk skin to me.

They thought I was a success as soon as I started paying the bills.

If you believe in God, He will open the windows of heaven and pour blessings upon you.

You're blessed if you have the strength to work.

God can make you anything you want to be, but you have to put everything in his hands.

If you want me to sing this Christmas song with the feeling and the meaning, you better see if you can locate that check.

My hands, my feet, I throw my whole body to say all that is within me.

How can you sing of amazing grace and all God's wonders without using your hands?

Do you know most of the Jewish songs have the same trend of sadness as Negro spirituals?

I hope to bring people to God with my songs.

The mind and the voice by themselves are not sufficient.

Gospel music rhythms are not African in origin, although I know that's what the jazz experts say.

Put your mind on the gospel. And remember - there's one God for all.

I don't worry too much about the script, I just ad lib, like Pearl Bailey.

One thing about playing the real jazz is that you can't count it.

Time is important to me because I want to sing long enough to leave a message. I'm used to singing in churches where nobody would dare stop me until the Lord arrives!

Anybody that sings the blues is in a deep pit, yelling for help.

The trouble with records is that they're too short.

This is the place to see the stars - Hollywood Bowl.

When you are through with the blues, you've got nothing to rest on.

Time is important to me because I want to sing long enough to leave a message.

Gospel music in those days of the early 1930s was really taking wing. It was the kind of music colored people had left behind them down South and they liked it because it was just like a letter from home.

Everybody needs somebody.

If you don't like Louis Armstrong, you don't know how to love.

A great influence in my life was the sanctified or Holiness churches...Everybody in there sang and they clapped and stomped heir feet and sang with their whole body... Their music was so strong and expressive, it used to bring tears to my eyes.

I sing God's music because it makes me feel free. It gives me hope. With the blues, when you finish, you still have the blues.

Blues are the songs of despair,

Someday the sun is going to shine down on me in some faraway place.

Money just draws flies.

Gospel songs are the songs of hope. When you sing gospel you have the feeling there is a cure for what's wrong, but when you are through with the blues, you've got nothing to rest on.