John Philip Sousa Quotes

Quotes about:

• Dance as though no one is watching. Love as though you've never been hurt. Sing as though no one can hear you. Live as though heaven is on earth.

  John Philip Sousa

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  35 Copy quote

• The red and white and starry blue
  Is freedom's shield and hope.

  John Philip Sousa

  Blue, White, Shields

  55 Copy quote

• Anybody can write music of a sort. But touching the public heart is quite another thing.

  John Philip Sousa

  Music, Writing, Heart

  24 Copy quote

• I have always believed that 98% of a student's progress is due to his own efforts, and 2% to his teacher.

  John Philip Sousa

  Teacher, Teaching, Effort

  22 Copy quote

• A band is only as good as its euphonium section.

  John Philip Sousa

  Band, Sections

  24 Copy quote

• From childhood I was passionately fond of music and wanted to be a musician. I have no recollection of any real desire ever to be anything else.

  John Philip Sousa

  Real, Childhood, Desire

  13 Copy quote

• I am happy now, to recall that I was not only his son but his companion, and whenever there was a hunting expedition or any other pleasure, I was always with him.

  John Philip Sousa

  Travel, Son, Hunting

  48 Copy quote

• Any composer who is gloriously conscious that he is a composer must believe that he receives his inspiration from a source higher than himself.

  John Philip Sousa

  Believe, Inspiration, Conscious

  John Philip Sousa (2010). “Six marches”, p.46, A-R Editions, Inc.

  10 Copy quote

• I firmly believe that we have more latent musical talent in America than there is in any other country. But to dig it out there must be good music throughout the land, a lot of it. Everyone must hear it, and such a process takes time.

  John Philip Sousa

  Country, Believe, Land

  20 Copy quote

• Jazz will endure just as long people hear it through their feet instead of their brains.

  John Philip Sousa

  Music, Feet, Free Jazz

  John Philip Sousa (2010). “Six marches”, p.52, A-R Editions, Inc.

  9 Copy quote

• I forsee a marked deterioration in American musicand a host of other injuries to music in its artistic manifestations, by virtue—or rather by vice—of the multiplication of the various music-reproducing machines

  John Philip Sousa

  Vices, Deterioration, Machines

  John Philip Sousa (2010). “Six marches”, p.31, A-R Editions, Inc.

  11 Copy quote

• Is it not the business of the conductor to convey to the public in its dramatic form the central idea of a composition; and how can he convey that idea successfully if he does not enter heart and soul into the life of the music and the tale it unfolds?

  John Philip Sousa

  Heart, Ideas, Soul

  15 Copy quote

• My success is not due to any personal superiority over other people.

  John Philip Sousa

  Success, Congratulations, People

  7 Copy quote

• There is one thing that freezes a musician more than the deadliest physical cold, and that is the spiritual chill of an unresponsive audience!

  John Philip Sousa

  Spiritual, Musician, Cold

  10 Copy quote

• The office of President is a great one; to every true American it seems the greatest on earth. And to me, as I was engaged in weaving a background of music for the pageantry of it, there came a deeper realization of the effect of that office on the man.

  John Philip Sousa

  Men, Office, President

  9 Copy quote

• Remember always that the composer's pen is still mightier than the bow of the violinist; in you lie all the possibilities of the creation of beauty.

  John Philip Sousa

  Beauty, Lying, Bows

  10 Copy quote

• I can almost always write music; at any hour of the twenty-four, if I put pencil to paper, music comes.

  John Philip Sousa

  Writing, Twenties, Paper

  9 Copy quote

• You can't drive a Spike with a Tack Hammer

  John Philip Sousa

  Hammers

  7 Copy quote

• Sincere composers believe in God.

  John Philip Sousa

  Believe, Sincere, Believe In God

  8 Copy quote

• I still feel the impulse to give young writers a hearing, and I believe I have played more unpublished compositions than any other band leader in the country.

  John Philip Sousa

  Country, Believe, Giving

  9 Copy quote

• My religion lies in my composition.

  John Philip Sousa

  Lying, Religion, Composition

  7 Copy quote

• To the average mind popular music would mean compositions vulgarly conceived and commonplace in their treatment. That is absolutely false.

  John Philip Sousa

  Mean, Average, Mind

  7 Copy quote

• Composers are the only people who can hear good music above bad sounds.

  John Philip Sousa

  People, Sound, Composer

  9 Copy quote

• The average music-lover hears only the production under prevailing conditions.

  John Philip Sousa

  Alaska, Average, Lovers

  9 Copy quote

• I think that the quality of all bands is steadily improving and it is a pleasant thought to me that perhaps the efforts of Sousa's Band have quickened that interest and improved that quality.

  John Philip Sousa

  Thinking, Effort, Quality

  5 Copy quote

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