Blues are the songs of despair, but gospel songs are the songs of hope.

The Lord doesn't like us to be dead. Be alive. Sometimes I dance to the glory of the Lord, because He said so.

I don't worry too much about the script, I just ad lib, like Pearl Bailey.

This is the place to see the stars - Hollywood Bowl.

Put your mind on the gospel. And remember - there's one God for all.

Everybody needs somebody.

Without a song, each day would be a century.

When you are through with the blues, you've got nothing to rest on.

I'll come to any benefit if I see SCLC get all the money.

When you sing gospel you have a feeling there is a cure for what's wrong.

They thought I was a success as soon as I started paying the bills.

Anybody that sings the blues is in a deep pit, yelling for help.

I close my eyes when I sing so I can feel the song better.

Sometimes you ask God for something and you don't know what you're asking.

My hands, my feet, I throw my whole body to say all that is within me.

Blues are the songs of despair, but gospel songs are the songs of hope.

Baby, black promoters oppressed me before white promoters ever got hold of me. Don't talk skin to me.

Money just draws flies.

Time is important to me because I want to sing long enough to leave a message. I'm used to singing in churches where nobody would dare stop me until the Lord arrives!

God can make you anything you want to be, but you have to put everything in his hands.

The old Devil gets mad when you're trying to do good. Pray that God will move the stumbling blocks.

How can you sing of amazing grace and all God's wonders without using your hands?

I hope to bring people to God with my songs.

Do you know most of the Jewish songs have the same trend of sadness as Negro spirituals?

If you want me to sing this Christmas song with the feeling and the meaning, you better see if you can locate that check.

Gospel music rhythms are not African in origin, although I know that's what the jazz experts say.

It is easy to be independent when you've got money. But to be independent when you haven't got a thing, that's the Lord's test.

One thing about playing the real jazz is that you can't count it.

The trouble with records is that they're too short.

You're blessed if you have the strength to work.

The mind and the voice by themselves are not sufficient.

Anybody singing the blues is in a deep pit yelling for help.

Faith and prayer are the vitamins of the soul; man cannot live in health without them.

If you believe in God, He will open the windows of heaven and pour blessings upon you.

When you are through with the blues youve got nothing to rest on.

Blues are the songs of despair but gospel songs are the songs of hope.

Its easy to be independent when youve got money. But to be independent when you havent got a thing thats the Lords test.

It's easy to be independent when you've got money. But to be independent when you haven't got a thing—that's the Lord's test.

Courage is not the absence of despair; it is, rather, the capacity to move ahead in spite of despair.

If pessimism is despair, optimism is cowardice and stupidity. Is there any need to choose between them?

Just as despair can come to one only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings.

Don't despair too much if you see beautiful things destroyed, if you see them perish. Because the best things are always growing in secret.

Every composer knows the anguish and despair occasioned by forgetting ideas which one had no time to write down.

With optimism, you look upon the sunny side of things. People say, 'Studs, you're an optimist.' I never said I was an optimist. I have hope because what's the alternative to hope? Despair? If you have despair, you might as well put your head in the oven.

You may not know it, but at the far end of despair, there is a white clearing where one is almost happy.

Law is born from despair of human nature.

If I were a girl, I'd despair. The supply of good women far exceeds that of the men who deserve them.

This book, conceived in sorrow, composed in grief, and constructed at the brink of despair, contains my mind's best thoughts, and my soul's triumph over the powers of darkness.

Her pupils were at once her salvation and her despair. They gave her the means of supporting life, but they made life hardly worth supporting.