Famous Quotes & Sayings

Louis Armstrong Quotes & Sayings

Enjoy the top 79 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Louis Armstrong.

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Famous Quotes By Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 345175

Jazz is what I play for a living. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 642673

Unless you know what it is I ain't never going to be able to explain it to you. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 532098

We all go Do, Re, Mi, but you've gotta find all the other notes yourself. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1343883

Seems to me it ain't the world that's so bad but what we're doing to it, and all I'm saying is: see what a wonderful world it would be if only we'd give it a chance. Love, baby - love. That's the secret. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 695806

There is no such thing as 'on the way out' as long as you are still doing something interesting and good; you're in the business because you're breathing. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 2055724

I don't let my mouth say nothin' my head can't stand ... — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 654535

Each man has his own music bubbling up inside him. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1261132

Some of you young folks been saying to me, 'Hey Pops, what you mean what a wonderful world? How about all them wars all over the place? You call them wonderful? And how about hunger and pollution? They ain't so wonderful either.' But how about listening to old Pops for a minute. It seems to me it ain't the world that's so bad, but what we're doing to it, and all I'm saying is see what a wonderful world it would be if only we'd give it a chance. Love, baby, love. That's the secret. Yeah. If lots more of us loved each other, we'd solve lots more problems. And man, this world would be a gasser. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 2182178

Red beans and ricely yours. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 838171

If ya ain't got it in ya, ya can't blow it out. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 615875

As a youngster in the little orphanage home in New Orleans, I was the bugler of the institution. When I got to be around 13 or 14 years old, they took me off the bugle and put me in the little brass band. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1449823

If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1472459

All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing a song. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1492823

The best I can do is stay happy. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1390610

You either have it or you don't. You play your horn just like you sing a song or a hymn. If it's in your heart, you express yourself in the tune. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1537991

It really puzzles me to see marijuana connected with narcotics dope and all of that stuff. It is a thousand times better than whiskey. It is an assistant and a friend. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1549929

What we play is life. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1573851

Even If I have two three days off, you still have to blow that horn. You have to keep up those chops ... I have to warm up everyday for at least an hour. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1578419

Never play anything the same way twice. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1718841

If it hadn't been for Jazz, there wouldn't be no rock and roll. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1343700

There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell them. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1728960

I see trees of green, red roses too. I see them bloom for me and you. And I think to myself what a wonderful world. I see skies of blue and clouds of white. The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night. And I think to myself what a wonderful world — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1333885

Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans. When that's where you left your heart. The moonlight on the bayou a creole tune that fills the air. I dream about magnolias in bloom and I'm wishin' I was there. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1737694

Musicians don't retire; they stop when there's no more music in them. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1242828

Give me a kiss to build a dream on
And my imagination will thrive upon that kiss
Sweetheart, I ask no more than this
A kiss to build a dream on. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1331813

A lot of the musicians asked me if when I hit my high-Cs on the records I had a clarinet take the notes. Some [thought] I had invented some kind of gadget so I could play high register. They weren't satisfied until they handed me a trumpet that they had with them and had me swing it. Then they cheered. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 2008055

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky Are also on the faces of people goin' by I see friends shaking hands saying, "How do you do" They're really saying "I love you." I hear babies cry, I watch then grow They'll learn much more than I'll ever know; And I think to myself, What a wonderful world; Yes, I think to myself, What a wonderful world. Oh yeah! — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 2255773

The Brick House was one of the toughest joints I ever played in ... Guys would drink and fight one another like circle saws. Bottles would come flying over the bandstand like crazy and there was lots of plain common shooting and cutting. But somehow all that jive didn't faze me at all. I was so happy to have some place to blow my horn. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 2197068

You blows who you is. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 2181502

I'm a spade, you're an ofay. Let's play. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 2165023

My life has always been my music, it's always come first, but the music ain't worth nothing if you can't lay it on the public. The main thing is to live for that audience, 'cause what you're there for is to please the people. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 2096637

As many bands as you heard [in New Orleans], that's how many bands you heard playing right. I thought I was in Heaven playing second trumpet in the Tuxedo Brass Band
and they had some funeral marches that would just touch your heart, they were so beautiful. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 2073534

Not too slow, not too fast. Kind of like half-fast. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 2067746

We don't play slow and we don't play fast, we play half fast — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 2018732

The Bright Blessed Day, the Dark Sacred Night — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1749687

I got a simple rule about everybody. If you don't treat me right - shame on you. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1974730

There's a thing I've dreamed of all my life, and I'll be damned if it don't look like it's about to come true-to be King of the Zulu's parade. After that, I'll be ready to die. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1930528

I'll bet right now most of the youngsters and hot club fans who hear the name Storyville hasn't the least idea that it consisted of some of the biggest prostitutes in the world ... Standing in their doorways nightly in their fine and beautiful negligees
faintly calling to the boys as they passed their cribs. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1897996

It makes you feel good, man, makes you forget all the bad things that happen to a Negro. It makes you feel wanted, and when you're with another tea smoker, it makes you feel a special kinship. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1860287

A lotta cats copy the Mona Lisa, but people still line up to see the original. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1840476

I had a chance to play with the best musicians that were coming through because I was pretty good myself or else they wouldn't have tolerated with me. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1810861

All them weird chords which don't mean a thing ... you got no melody to remember, and no beat to dance to — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1764625

I've Got the World on a String, — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1759268

You've got to be good or as bad as the devil. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 470188

Never play a thing the same way twice. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 643022

I don't get involved in politics. I just blow my horn. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 620507

The way they are treating my people in the South, the government can go to hell! — Louis Armstrong

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You got to love to be able to play — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 583606

It's getting almost so bad a colored man hasn't got any country. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 554392

Making money ain't nothing exciting to me. You might be able to buy a little better booze than the wino on the corner. But you get sick just like the next cat and when you die you're just as graveyard dead as he is. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 553882

Love is talkative passion. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 491851

My whole life, my whole soul, my whole spirit is to blow that horn. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 488271

Don't do nothing halfway, else you find yourself dropping more than can be picked up. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 670567

There's only two ways to sum up music; either it's good or it's bad. If it's good you don't mess about it, you just enjoy it. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 374269

What a wonderful world. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 359096

When I go to the Gate, I'll play a duet with Gabriel. Yeah, we'll play 'Sleepy Time Down South' and 'Hello, Dolly!.' Then he can blow a couple that he's been playing up there all the time. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 355978

I spent nine days in the Downtown Los Angeles City Jail. The judge gave me a suspended sentence and I went to work that night - wailed just like nothing happened. What strucked me funny though - I laughed real loud when several movie stars came up to the bandstand while we played a dance set and told me, when they heard about me getting caught with marijuana, they thought marijuana was a chick. Woo boy - that really fractured me! — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 269984

If you still have to ask, shame on you — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 251700

You will never know what the meaning of Jazz is if ask what it means. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 166278

There is two kinds of music, the good, and the bad. I play the good kind. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 131109

At first it was just a misdemeanor, but then you lost the "mis-de" and you just got meaner and meaner.. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 130307

If you don't understand it, don't mess with it. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1008237

When I was young and very green, I worte that tune, Sister Kate, and someone said that's fine, let me publish it for you. I'll give you fifty dollars. I didn't know nothing about papers, and business, and I sold it outright. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1289548

If you have to ask what jazz is you will never know. Louis Armstrong — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1244894

Jazz is played from the heart. You can even live by it. Always love it. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 125774

Man, if you have to ask what it [jazz] is, you'll never know. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1174257

White folks still in the lead. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1158658

Music is either good or bad, and it's got to be learned. You got to have balance. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1103929

Every time I close my eyes blowing that trumpet of mine, I look right into the heart of good old New Orleans. It has given me something to live for. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1092220

The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Things like old folks singing in the moonlight in the back yard on a hot night or something said long ago. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1058413

If I don't practice for a day, I know it. If I don't practice for two days, the critics know it. And if I don't practice for three days, the public knows it. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 1292475

You can't take it for granted. Even if we have two, three days off I still have to blow that horn a few hours to keep up the chops. I mean I've been playing 50 years, and that's what I've been doing in order to keep in that groove there. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 981793

You see, pops, that's the kind of talk that's ruining the music. Everyone's trying to do something new, no one trying to learn the fundamentals first. All them young cats playing their wierd chords. And what happens? No one's working. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 893314

Musicians in my day had nicknames. My name was "Satchel Mouth," like a doctor's satchel. When I went to England this fellow was strictly English, and he was editor of the newspaper there. He shook my hand after I got off the train and said, "Hello, Satchmo." So right away my trombone player said, "Mmm, the man thinks you have mo' mouth than Satchel Mouth." So I was stuck with it, and it turned out all right. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 886903

I don't need words. It's all in the phrasing. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 885175

It ain't whatcha say, it's the way howcha say it. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 871294

There's some folks, that, if they don't know, you can't tell 'em. — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 831597

To jazz, or not to jazz, there is no question! — Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Quotes 776002

We all do 'do, re, mi,' but you have got to find the other notes yourself. — Louis Armstrong