73 Duke Ellington Quotes on Life & Jazz (INSPIRING)

Top 10 Most Famous Duke Ellington Quotes (BEST)

“Roaming through the jungle of “Ohs” and “Ahs”, searching for a more agreeable noise, I live a life of primitivity with the mind of a child and an unquenchable thirst for sharps and flats.”
Duke Ellington

A goal is a dream with a finish line. — A goal is a **dream** with a finish line.

I don't need time, I need a deadline. — I don’t need **time**, I need a deadline.

A problem is a chance for you to do your best. — A problem is a **chance** for you to do your best.

Be a number one yourself. And not a number two somebody else.

Simplicity is a most complex form. — **Simplicity** is a most complex form.

We write and play from our perspective, and the audience listens from its perspective. If and when we agree, I am lucky. — We **write** and play from our perspective, and the audience listens from its perspective. If and when we agree, I am **lucky**.

There are 2 rules in life Number 1- Never quit, Number 2- Never forget rule number 1. — There are 2 rules in life: Number 1- Never quit, Number 2- Never forget rule number 1.

There are two kinds of worries - those you can do something about and those you can't. Don't spend any time on the latter. — There are two kinds of **worries** – those you can do something about and those you can’t. Don’t spend any time on the latter.

Create, and be true to yourself, and depend only on your own good taste.

13 Thought-Provoking Duke Ellington Quotes About Life

“His greatest virtue, I think, was his honesty–not only to others but to himself. He demanded freedom of expression and lived in what we consider the most important of moral freedoms; freedom from hate, unconditionally; freedom from all self-pity (even throughout all the pain and bad news); freedom from fear of possibly doing something that might help another more than it might help himself; and freedom from that kind of pride that could make a man feel he was better than his brother or neighbor.”
Duke Ellington

Gray skies are just clouds passing over.

You've got to find some way of saying it without saying it. — You’ve got to find some way of saying it without saying it.

My attitude is never to be satisfied, never enough, never. — My **attitude** is never to be satisfied, never enough, never.

My mother told me I was blessed, and I have always taken her word for it. Being born of - or reincarnated from - royalty is nothing like being blessed. — My **mother** told me I was blessed, and I have always taken her word for it. Being born of – or reincarnated from – royalty is nothing like being **blessed**.

Self-discipline, as a virtue or an acquired asset, can be invaluable to anyone. — **Self-discipline**, as a virtue or an acquired **asset**, can be invaluable to anyone.

It doesn't mean a thing if you ain't got that swing. — It doesn’t mean a thing if you ain’t got that swing.

I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.

Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn't want me to be too famous too young. — **Fate** is being kind to me. Fate doesn’t want me to be too famous too young.

People do not retire. They are retired by others. — People do not **retire**. They are retired by others.

Sing sweet, but put a little dirt in it.

Tomorrow is in the wings waiting for you to sound her entrance fanfare.

16 Duke Ellington Quotes That Will Raise Your Appreciation in Music

“I began by tinkering around with some old tunes I knew. Then, just to try something different, I set to putting some music to the rhythm that I used in jerking ice-cream sodas at the Poodle Dog. I fooled around with the tune more and more until at last, lo and behold, I had completed my first piece of finished music.”
Duke Ellington

If it sounds good and feels good, then it is good!

Music is my mistress and she plays second fiddle to no one.

“In music, as you develop a theme or musical idea, there are many points at which directions must be decided, and at any time I was in the throes of debate with myself, harmonically or melodically, I would turn to Billy Strayhorn. We would talk, and then the whole world would come into focus. The steady hand of his good judgment pointed to the clear way that was fitting for us. He was not, as he was often referred to by many, my alter ego. Billy Strayhorn was my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brainwaves in his head, and his in mine.”
Duke Ellington

I never had much interest in the piano until I realized that every time I played, a girl would appear on the piano bench to my left and another to my right.

Music is the tonal reflection of beauty. — Music is the tonal reflection of **beauty**.

You can’t write music right unless you know how the man that’ll play it plays poker. — You can’t write music right unless you know how the man that’ll play it plays **poker**.

It's like an act of murder; you play with intent to commit something. — It’s like an act of murder; you play with intent to commit something.

There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.

Music, of course, is what I hear and something that I more or less live by. It's not an occupation or profession, it's a compulsion. — Music, of course, is what I hear and something that I more or less live by. It’s not an occupation or profession, it’s a compulsion.

What does music mean to you? What would you do without music?

I like any and all of my associations with music - writing, playing, and listening. — I like any and all of my associations with music – writing, playing, and listening.

A musical profit outweighs a financial loss.

My biggest kick in music - playing or writing - is when I have a problem. Without a problem to solve, how much interest do you take in anything? — My biggest kick in music – playing or writing – is when I have a problem. Without a problem to solve, how much interest do you take in anything?

In music, as you develop a theme or musical idea, there are many points at which directions must be decided.

New music Hell, there’s been no new music since Stravinsky. — New music? Hell, there’s been no new music since Stravinsky.

8 Duke Ellington Quotes About Jazz

“Put it this way: Jazz is a good barometer of freedom. In its beginnings, the United States of America spawned certain ideals of freedom and independence through which, eventually, jazz was evolved, and the music is so free that many people say it is the only unhampered, unhindered expression of complete freedom yet produced in this country.”
Duke Ellington

By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of man you wouldn't want your daughter to associate with. — By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of man you wouldn’t want your daughter to associate with.

Jazz is the only unhampered, unhindered expression of complete freedom yet produced in this country.

“It is becoming increasingly difficult to decide where jazz starts or where it stops, where Tin Pan Alley begins and jazz ends, or even where the borderline lies between between classical music and jazz. I feel there is no boundary line.”
Duke Ellington

Jazz today, as always in the past, is a matter of thoughtful creation, not mere unaided instinct.

Somehow I suspect that if Shakespeare were alive today, he might be a jazz fan himself. — Somehow I suspect that if **Shakespeare** were alive today, he might be a jazz fan himself.

If anybody was Mr. Jazz it was Louis Armstrong. He was the epitome of jazz and always will be.

3 Duke Ellington Quotes About Art

Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions when it ceases to be dangerous you don't want it. — Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous you don’t want it.

There is hardly any money interest in art, and music will be there when money is gone. — There is hardly any **money** interest in art, and music will be there when money is gone.

There is no art when one does something without intention.

3 Duke Ellington Quotes About Love

Love is supreme and unconditional. Like is nice, but limited. — **Love** is supreme and unconditional. Like is nice, but limited.

Love is indescribable and unconditional. I could tell you a thousand things that it is not, but not one that it is. Either you have it or you haven't; there's no proof of it. — Love is indescribable and unconditional. I could tell you a thousand things that it is not, but not one that it is. Either you have it or you haven’t; there’s no proof of it.

Selfishness is essential to survival, and without survival we cannot protect those whom we love more than ourselves.

2 Duke Ellington Quotes on Musicians

The most important thing I look for in a musician is whether he knows how to listen.

The wise musicians are those who play what they can master.

2 Duke Ellington Quotes on Critics

“Critics have their purposes, and they’re supposed to do what they do, but sometimes they get a little carried away with what they think someone should have done, rather than concerning themselves with what they did.”
Duke Ellington

Critics get a little carried away with what someone should have done, rather than what he did.

3 Duke Ellington Quotes on Spirituality

“On becoming more acquainted with the word of the Bible, I began to understand so much more of what I had been taught, and of what I had learned about life and about the people in mine.”
Duke Ellington

Everyone prays in their own language, and there is no language that God does not understand. — Everyone **prays** in their own language, and there is no language that God does not understand.

“How can anyone expect to be understood unless he presents his thoughts with complete honesty? This situation is unfair because it asks too much of the world. In effect, we say, ‘ I don’t dare show you what I am because I don’t trust you for a minute but please love me anyway because I so need you to. And, of course, if you don’t love me anyway, you’re a dirty dog, just as I suspected, so I was right in the first place.’ Yet, every time God’s children have thrown away fear in pursuit of honesty-trying to communicate themselves, understood or not, miracles have happened.”
Duke Ellington

2 Duke Ellington Quotes on Bands

There is nothing to keeping a band together. You simply have to have a gimmick, and the gimmick I use is to pay them money!

If you have a great band with a mediocre drummer, you have a mediocre band. If you have a mediocre band with a great drummer, you have a great band!

11 Duke Ellington Quotes That Will Make You Think

“The common root, of course, comes out of Africa. That’s the pulse. The African pulse. It’s all the way back from the old slave chants and up through the blues, the jazz, and up through rock. And it’s all got the African pulse.”
Duke Ellington

New York is a place where the rich walk, the poor drive Cadillac's, and the beggars die of malnutrition with thousands of dollars hidden in their mattresses. — **New York** is a place where the rich walk, the poor drive Cadillac’s, and the beggars die of malnutrition with thousands of dollars hidden in their mattresses.

Now I can say loudly and openly what I have been saying to myself on my knees.

“Everybody in Canada seemed to listen to what they enjoyed, and nobody could tell them what to like, or what was the popular, or what was the In thing. Even today, it is very hard to brainwash a Canadian.”
Duke Ellington