“Don’t ever get so big or important that you can not hear and listen to every other person.”

I believe that men are here to grow themselves into the best good that they can be – at least, this is what I want to do.

God breathes through us so completely, So gently we hardly feel it, yet it is our everything.

My music is the spiritual expression of what I am — my faith, my knowledge, my being…When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people, to help humanity free itself from its hangups…I want to speak to their souls.

I think I was first awakened to musical exploration by Dizzy Gillespie and Bird. It was through their work that I began to learn about musical structures and the more theoretical aspects of music.

Sometimes I wish I could walk up to my music for the first time, as if I had never heard it before.

Working with Monk is like falling down a dark elevator shaft.

All a musician can do is to get closer to the sources of nature, and so feel that he is in communion with the natural laws.

My music is the spiritual expression of what I am: my faith, my knowledge, my being.

My goal is to live the truly religious life, and express it in my music. If you live it, when you play there’s no problem because the music is part of the whole thing. To be a musician is really something. It goes very, very deep. My music is the spiritual expression of what I am – my faith, my knowledge, my being.

Considering the great heritage in music that we have – the work of the giants of the past, the present, and the promise of those who are to come – I feel that we have every reason to face the future optimistically.

The real risk is not changing. I have to feel that I’m after something. If I make money, fine. But I’d rather be striving. It’s the striving, man, it’s that I want.

Change is inevitable in music – things change.

Whatever I’d say would be an understatement. I can only say my life was made much better by knowing him. He was one of the greatest people I’ve ever known, as a man, a friend, and a musician.

The main thing a musician would like to do is to give a picture to the listener of the many wonderful things he knows of and senses in the universe.

I think the majority of musicians are interested in truth.

Any time you play your horn, it helps you. If you get down, you can help yourself even in a rock ‘n’ roll band.

My thinking was taught to tribes in South Africa like the Zulus and Xhosas. At the time there were about 210 fights breaking out among them every month, but after they listened to my lessons, this fell to just four.

A good listener is very nearly as attractive as a good talker. You cannot have a beautiful mind if you do not know how to listen.

The beginning of knowledge is the intention, then listening, then understanding, then action, then preservation, and then spreading it.

To listen to some devout people, one would imagine that God never laughs.

Not only a truer knowledge, but a greater power comes to one in the quietude and silence of a mind that, instead of bubbling on the surface, can go to its own depths and listen.

I will still live like a ghost in the mornings; walking, listening, pouring coffee to finish sometime by the afternoon, when I’ve had enough of watching the world and do all I can to live in it.

Listen to me, and listen very carefully. The fact that you failed doesn’t mean it’s the end. It only means you’re on the right track to accomplish your goals.

Nothing is harder to see into thanpeoples nature. The sage looks at subtle phenomena and listens tosmall voices. This harmonizes the outside with the inside and the inside with the outside.