“What’s in your soul is in your soul.”

I was aware of people staring at me. No one moved. They seemed almost in trance. I just stared at the clock in the center of the church. When I finished, everyone clapped and started crying.

God gave me a voice to sing with, and when you have that, what other gimmick is there?

I finally faced the fact that it isn’t a crime not having friends. Being alone means you have fewer problems.

I think over the years, being a mother, I’ve matured in so many ways.

I’ve turned down a lot of arena dates because I’ve done the big-arena thing. Now, I want to do something where people can feel me and I can feel them.

I’m either my best friend or my worst enemy.

Never let your heart take precedence over reason, otherwise you will have problems.

Being around people like Aretha Franklin and Gladys Knight, Dionne Warwick and Roberta Flack, all these greats, I was taught to listen and observe.

If you say my eyes are beautiful, it’s because they are looking at you.

No one makes me do anything I don’t want to do.

She’s my teacher, my adviser, my greatest inspiration.

In grammar school some of the girls had problems with me. My face was too light. My hair was too long. It was the black-consciousness period, and I felt really bad.

I believe that children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty they possess inside.

My mother taught me beauty really lives in places like a smile.

Growing around great musicians, you just can’t help it. I identified with it immediately. It was something that was so natural to me that when I started singing, it was almost like speaking.

I like being a woman, even in a man’s world. After all, men can’t wear dresses, but we can wear the pants.

You have to take care of yourself, your body, your mind, take care of your soul-be your own keeper.

Anxiety is our agitated soul scrambling for control.

The greatest enemy to human souls is the self-righteous spirit which makes men look to themselves for salvation.

I think of love, and you, and my heart grows full and warm, and my breath stands still. I can feel a sunshine stealing into my soul and making it all summer, and every thorn, a rose.

Nature is schoolmistress, the soul the pupil; and whatever one has taught or the other has learned has come from God – the Teacher of the teacher.

I do isometrics in church so while I’m doing my soul some good, I’m doing my body some good, too.

The Soul selects her own Society.

When was the last time you thanked you for always being there for you? Self appreciation soothes an aching soul.