James Brown Quotes

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

I just thank God for all of the blessings.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Thank God for the journey.

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

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

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

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.

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

Our silence is deafening and deadly.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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've been knocked down a lot of times.

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

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

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.

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

When you touch me, good God.

For goodness sake, look at those cakes.

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

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

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