Louis Armstrong Quotes

Louis Armstrong shares funny, candid thoughts on music, people and life.

39 quotes

1. The Brick House was one of the toughest joints I ever played in ... Guys would drink and fight one another like circle saws. Bottles would come flying over the bandstand like crazy and there was lots of plain common shooting and cutting. But somehow all that jive didn't faze me at all. I was so happy to have some place to blow my horn.

2. Some of you young folks been saying to me, 'Hey Pops, what you mean 'What a wonderful world'? How about all them wars all over the place? You call them wonderful? And how about hunger and pollution? That aint so wonderful either.' Well how about listening to old Pops for a minute. Seems to me, it aint the world that's so bad but what we're doin' to it. And all I'm saying is, see, what a wonderful world it would be if only we'd give it a chance. Love baby, love. That's the secret, yeah. If lots more of us loved each other, we'd solve lots more problems. And then this world would be better. That's wha' ol' Pops keeps saying.

3. The way they're treating my people in the South, the government can go to hell.

4. At first it was just a misdemeanor, but then you lost the 'mis-de' and you just got meaner and meaner..

5. All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing a song.

6. If you gotta ask, you'll never know.

7. If you still have to ask, shame on you

8. It really puzzles me to see marijuana connected with narcotics dope and all of that stuff. It is a thousand times better than whiskey. It is an assistant and a friend.

9. Making money ain't nothing exciting to me. You might be able to buy a little better booze than the wino on the corner. But you get sick just like the next cat and when you die you're just as graveyard dead as he is.

10. There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.

11. He was the only musician who ever lived, who can't be replaced by someone.

12. You can't play anything on a horn that Louis hasn't played.

13. He was born poor, died rich, and never hurt anyone along the way.

14. As many bands as you heard [in New Orleans], that's how many bands you heard playing right. I thought I was in Heaven playing second trumpet in the Tuxedo Brass Band -- and they had some funeral marches that would just touch your heart, they were so beautiful.

15. There's a thing I've dreamed of all my life, and I'll be damned if it don't look like it's about to come true-to be King of the Zulu's parade. After that, I'll be ready to die.

16. [Bebop is] Chinese music.

17. Seems to me it ain't the world that's so bad but what we're doing to it, and all I'm saying is: see what a wonderful world it would be if only we'd give it a chance. Love, baby - love. That's the secret.

18. Jazz is played from the heart. You can even live by it. Always love it.

19. The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky Are also on the faces of people goin' by I see friends shaking hands saying, "How do you do" They're really saying "I love you." I hear babies cry, I watch then grow They'll learn much more than I'll ever know; And I think to myself, What a wonderful world; Yes, I think to myself, What a wonderful world. Oh yeah!

20. A lotta cats copy the Mona Lisa, but people still line up to see the original.

21. If it hadn't been for Jazz, there wouldn't be no rock and roll.

22. The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician.

23. And I think to myself what a wonderful world. Oh, yeah…

24. When I go to the Gate, I'll play a duet with Gabriel. Yeah, we'll play 'Sleepy Time Down South' and 'Hello, Dolly!.' Then he can blow a couple that he's been playing up there all the time.

25. It really puzzles me to see marijuana connected with narcotics . . . dope and all that crap. It's a thousand times better than whiskey - it's an assistant - a friend.

26. You see, pops, that's the kind of talk that's ruining the music. Everyone's trying to do something new, no one trying to learn the fundamentals first. All them young cats playing their wierd chords. And what happens? No one's working.

27. If ya ain't got it in ya, ya can't blow it out.

28. There's only two ways to sum up music; either it's good or it's bad. If it's good you don't mess about it, you just enjoy it.

29. It ain't whatcha say, it's the way howcha say it.

30. I had a chance to play with the best musicians that were coming through because I was pretty good myself or else they wouldn't have tolerated with me.

31. When I was young and very green, I worte that tune, Sister Kate, and someone said that's fine, let me publish it for you. I'll give you fifty dollars. I didn't know nothing about papers, and business, and I sold it outright.

32. The best I can do is stay happy.

33. As a youngster in the little orphanage home in New Orleans, I was the bugler of the institution. When I got to be around 13 or 14 years old, they took me off the bugle and put me in the little brass band.

34. If I don’t practice for a day, I know it. If I don’t practice for two days, the critics know it. And if I don’t practice for three days, the public knows it.

35. I'll bet right now most of the youngsters and hot club fans who hear the name Storyville hasn't the least idea that it consisted of some of the biggest prostitutes in the world ... Standing in their doorways nightly in their fine and beautiful negligees -- faintly calling to the boys as they passed their cribs.

36. I don't need words. It's all in the phrasing.

37. There is two kinds of music, the good, and the bad. I play the good kind.

38. My whole life, my whole soul, my whole spirit is to blow that horn.

39. I see trees of green… red roses too I see em bloom… for me and for you And I think to myself… what a wonderful world. I see skies of blue… clouds of white Bright blessed days…dark sacred nights And I think to myself …what a wonderful world. The colors of a rainbow…so pretty ..in the sky Are also on the faces…of people ..going by I see friends shaking hands…sayin.. how do you do Theyre really sayin…I love you.