James Brown Quotes

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

I've been knocked down a lot of times.

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.

Great books inspire great minds. Great minds master many disciplines. The most difficult discipline to master is self discipline.

For goodness sake, look at those cakes.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

The white horse of heroin will ride you to hell.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Thank God for the journey.

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

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

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.

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

When you touch me, good God.

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

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.

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

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

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

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