James Brown quotes:

I think the best thing about being James Brown is looking at my little son. Hopefully I can make my son a role model to a lot of people.

Sometimes you struggle so hard to feed your family one way, you forget to feed them the other way, with spiritual nourishment. Everybody needs that.

Like Christ said, love thee one another. I learned to do that, and I learned to respect and be appreciative and thankful for what I had.

I started Michael years ago. I saw him in Gary, Indiana, and we'd have him on the talent shows. He kind of emulated me, and did the best he could.

Thank God for the journey.

I just thank God for all of the blessings.

Michael Jackson has a very good heart. He was crying when he was giving me the award, 'cause his mind went back over the early days.

I named my new son James Joseph Brown II. I think he's going to be a lot better than I was.

I used to think like Moses. That knocked me down for a couple years and put me in prison. Then I start thinking like Job. Job waited and became the wealthiest and richest man ever 'cause he believed in God.

You can take care of yourself, and God helps those who help themselves.

You only live once.

We can never be like it was at Penn State with Joe Paterno. That was an anomaly in an of itself.

I think what I came through is great, but my son can take it to another level, not having to fight racism. His mother's a Norwegian and I'm mixed up four or five times, so he can face the world.

My expectations of other people, I double them on myself.

Don't terrorize. Organize. Don't burn. Give kids a chance to learn . . . The real answer to race problems in this country is education. Not burning and killing. Be ready. Be qualified. Own something. Be somebody. That's Black Power.

When God took it, he accepted it; when he brought it back, he accepted it. That's what's happening with me.

I'd like to cut down on the work a little bit.

The one thing that can solve most of our problems is dancing.

When I'm on stage, I'm trying to do one thing: bring people joy. Just like church does. People don't go to church to find trouble, they go there to lose it.

Hair is the first thing. And teeth the second. Hair and teeth. A man got those two things he's got it all.

I want to say to you, Help yourself, so you can help someone else.

I taught them everything they know, but not everything I know.

I'd rather be Jack be smart, than Jack be quick. Watch out for the man with the big fat licking stick.

My son don't have to say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud. He don't have to be called those crazy names.

You can't teach others if you are living the same way.

Got ants in my pants and I need to dance, so big fine mama, come give me a chance.

I've been knocked down a lot of times.

Tell the politicians and the hustlers: live and let live.

You got to live for yourself, yourself and nobody else.

Money won't change you, but time will take you out.

I don't know karate, but I know ka-razy!

You're like a dull knife, just ain't cuttin', just talkin' loud and saying nothing

My music wasn't written by Mozart, Beethoven, Bach or Schubert. It's written by God and me. They go "a one and a two and up." We start on the downbeat. Bam! And that's where we got them.

Sometimes I feel like I'm a preacher as well, 'cause I can really get into an audience.

The white horse of heroin will ride you to hell.

I got a wife who likes expensive things, so she takes all the cash.

The hardest thing about being James Brown is I have to live. I don't have no down time.

I'm not going to be joining ZZ Top. You know they can't play my stuff. It's too complicated.

I'm kidding about having only a few dollars. I might have a few dollars more.

I was stillborn. The midwives laid me aside, thought I was really gone. I laid there about an hour, and they picked me back up and tried again, 'cause my body was still warm. The Good Lord brought me back.

I've got soul and I'm super bad.

I Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing (Open Up the Door, I'll Get It Myself)

You got to use what you got to get just what you want.

Music, it requires more than brawn. It requires a lot of heart. You gotta put love in there.

As I always said, if people wanted to know who James Brown is, all they have to do is listen to my music.

I only got a seventh-grade education, but I have a doctorate in funk, and I like to put that to good use

It doesn't matter how you travel it, it's the same road. It doesn't get any easier when you get bigger, it gets harder. And it will kill you if you let it.

I had to tell about my colonic, which expresses the fact why I'm so neat today as opposed to a few years ago. I never knew that the weight made that much difference.

Don't let nobody take care of your business better than you.

Some like them fat, some like them tall, some like them short, skinny legs and all. I like them all.

When you touch me, good God.

For goodness sake, look at those cakes.

This is a revolution of the mind, get your mind together and get away from drugs.

Take those kids and raise them up, teach them how to drink out of a righteous cup.

I did the thing with bonds, which was about 30 million dollars, and didn't get none of the money on them.

What everybody's looking for today, they're looking for escape-ism.

Papa didn't cuss, he didn't raise a whole lot of fuss. But when we did wrong, Papa beat the hell out of us.

If you don't get it the first time, back up and try it again.

Get on up, stay on the scene, get on up, like a sex machine.

I'm the most sampled and stolen. What's mine is mine, and what's yours is mine, too... I got a song about that... But I'm never gonna release it. Don't want a war with the rappers. If it wasn't good, they wouldn't steal it.

I've been held responsible for taxes I know nothing about.

I don't know karate, but I know crazy.

Takes a man or a woman to say I'm sorry, and it takes a fool to walk away.

You're like a dull knife, it just ain't cutting.

It's a Man's Man's Man's World

Retire for what? What would I do? I made my name as a person that is helping. I'm like Moses in the music business.

Our silence is deafening and deadly.

I'm twice as old, but I feel good.

When I'm on stage, I'm trying to do one thing: bring people joy.

I used to play one job and have 125 pair of shoes on the floor. What was I doing? I couldn't wear but one pair.

I'm a ghetto man who made good. I never forgot where I came from and who put me on top - God and Jack The Rapper.

I don't really care what people think, ... I just do my own thing. ... I like being loud and letting people know I'm there.

Thank God that I had the ability to understand that I had a different beat and that I was a drummer.

I want to say to you: Help yourself, so you can help someone else.

I've outdone anyone you can name - Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Strauss. Irving Berlin, he wrote 1,001 tunes. I wrote 5,500.

Sometimes, you like to let the hair do the talking!

Music has to breathe and sweat. You have to play it live.

Everybody over there, get on up. Everybody out there, get into it. Everybody right there, get involved.

In our advanced technological age, most people deny the possibility of miracles.... Miracles don't happen, we are told, because they contravene the laws of nature and worse, they sound religious! Yet we live and move in a sea of miracle.