Matisyahu Quotes

Reggae music isn't Jewish, but a lot of the ideas are.

I think there is a tendency for people to get rigid and caught up in their beliefs of what is right and wrong, and they lose sight of humanity. Being human has to come first before right or wrong.

I can show you where to dig, and what to dig for, but the digging you must do for yourself.

Reach for the sky Keep your eye on the prize Forever in my mind Be my golden sunshine It's raining in your mind So push them clouds aside Forever by my side You're my golden sunshine

Most of my life wasn't about knowledge from books, but experiential knowledge.

Some artists are bound to an image: Bob Marley has dreadlocks, Matisyahu has a beard. But that's a reminder that the whole thing is not about style. It's about music.

Everyone's right or wrong, Everyone's got an opinion, put them in a song and let me keep on living.

We're so quick to go to make things black and white, and to put things in their box. But everything is this mixture - and that's what this world is - is this blend of different things.

All my life I been waitin' for I been prayin' for, for the people to say that we don't want to fight no more. They'll be no more wars and our children will play, one day.

Who’s gonna make you happy when you’re your own worst enemy?

There is an assumption if you are not religious, you have fallen, or you are further from God, or you are not doing the right thing. The judgment on me, with regard to my changes, is that he must be out all night partying or banging prostitutes and doing blow. This whole thing for me was absolutely the contrary. It was actually that God started to become very real to me, inside.

Vulnerability is a wonderful thing. We're all so afraid to be vulnerable in this world.

The idea that God's mercy is connected to whether or not I shave is ludicrous and I need to just trust myself, and that, you know, if I'm deserving of God's mercy, I'll get it, regardless of, you know, my beard.

I am reclaiming myself. Trusting my goodness and my divine mission.

When there's light shining on a tree, that tree takes on different meaning. If there's no light at all it just looks dead. If you look at light as godly meaning, the world comes alive in a certain way.

The beauty of life is not knowing.

The religious lifestyle keeps you focused. It's helpful when trying to manoeuvre through the music scene.

At a certain point, I felt the need to submit to a higher level of religiosity to move away from my intuition and to accept an ultimate truth. I felt that in order to become a good person, I needed rules - lots of them - or else I would somehow fall apart. I am reclaiming myself. Trusting my goodness and my divine mission.

What blows me away most is how sure people are of themselves.

I don't think you could pull one Bob Marley song that didn't have quotes from the Torah or the Old Testament.

We know nothing. And just because you know something to be true at this moment in your life or you feel that it is true, you can never be sure of yourself.

My life is not separate from my music, you know? It's not like a day job that I leave and go home. It's who I am as a person and how I am trying to grow, come closer to God, be a better person.

You're looking for help from God, you say he couldn't be found. Looking up to the sky and searchin' beneath the ground.

Before I was 14, I wanted to be a singer, an actor, or a hockey player. By 15, I knew I was going to be a singer.

It's unbelievable to me how sure people can be of themselves.

Vocal rest is awesome. It is like any kind of fast. Firstly, it is a purification of speech. It made me realize how not careful I am with the things I say. It also makes you find new ways of communication and new methods to connect with people.

When you meet somebody who is vulnerable, there is an attraction. There is something to that. There is beauty there.

Is it possible Hanukkah doesn't inspire folksy songs? Plot lines may be a part. The Christmas story has a lot of material to work with. There's Jesus and his birth, the wise men, their gifts and tons of frankincense.

My music is not really about one ideology. It's not about one truth.

A lot of people in the religious world believe that by secularizing, or viewing the changes as secular, such as dropping the beard and changing my appearance, they consider this to be a fall.

I was into acting as a kid. There was a time when I was 18 that I played the boy in a production of 'Equus' in Oregon, and I thought that was going to be my life.

I'm vulnerable reading people's comments on Facebook.

Today, I wanted to spend some time reading and responding to comments of fans on my Facebook page. Yes, there are great comments, but there are also a lot of people who are very opinionated and judgmental. So, initially, when I read these judgmental comments, I don't feel vulnerable, but rather I get defensive. But once I get past that anger, it sort of becomes hurt. It becomes pain.

A lot of people believe a lot of things. People also believe in a lot of ideas or hold tight to a lot of ideologies and beliefs.

The world that I come from is the world of raves, hip-hop clubs, and rock and roll.

I can't choose the most meaningful song that I've written. That would be like choosing one child over another. But first borns are always special.

If I've grown as an artist, it will be represented in the art. There's no need to explain it.

Growing up, the way that I looked was very important to me. I was always trying to impress people, and when I grew my beard there was a certain freedom, a separation, getting past this the way I looked, identify myself as a spiritual seeker.

For me now, what I've come to is, we don't know anything.

There is an idea in Kabbalah that the creation of the world is created through space. God is an ever present Being, and in order for anything outside of Him to exist, like this world for example, there needs to be what's called a TumTum[a], or a withdrawal of Godly-like. And that withdrawal happens not by connection but actually by separation. Conflict. And in the gap of that conflict is where the world is situated. That's where the world is created and lived.

There are a lot of people who get me. There are a lot of people who don't. I wouldn't say there is one thing that everyone is missing. But there are a good amount[b] of people who don't necessarily understand the recent changes I have made.

Music has always been such an amazing tool for me to access self and emotion.

People get so caught up in needing to know and having to prove themselves to be right, and I'm blown away by this.

I started performing at home as a kid putting on shows and lip-syncing Michael Jackson for the grown-ups. Then, in musicals and plays in school. At 17, I was performing in coffee shops and in parking lots at Phish shows. At 18, I had a band that played local shows in the Northwest.