Sting Quotes

Money's only important when you don't have any.

I think there's room for both private exploration and group work in Yoga.

I don't need to manufacture trauma in my life to be creative. I have a big enough reservoir of sadness or emotional trauma to last me.

I can't fly a flag for monogamy or whatever the opposite is; it depends on the person and on the situation.

Nothing comes from violence and nothing ever could, for all those born beneath an angry star, lest we forget how fragile we are.

There is no monopoly of common sense
On either side of the political fence
We share the same biology
Regardless of ideology
Believe me when I say to you
I hope the Russians love their children too
[ ... ]
There's no such thing as a winnable war
It's a lie we don't believe anymore ...
(The Russians)

I see songs not as a commodity used up when the album goes off the charts, which is often the case with pop songs. I see them as a body of work. Life should be breathed into them.

If you really want to define civilization it should be a culture that doesn't destroy its environment. If you burn down the kitchen one day and expect to eat the next, it is not even intelligent, let alone civilized.

Love is stronger than justice.

There's no religion but sex and music.

Great music as much about the space in between the notes as it is about the notes themselves.

The world is ruled by butterflies adding to their weapon piles. Imagine what your taxes buy. We hardly ever try.

That sense of failure, I don't know where people put it who don't write songs and aren't able to emote physically. It must go somewhere.

When there's no information and the compass turns to nowhere that you know well, let your soul be your pilot.

He knows that something somewhere has to break/He sees the family home now looming in the headlights/The pain upstairs that makes his eyeballs ache/
Many miles away there's a shadow on the door of a cottage/on the shore of a dark Scottish lake

I was brought up as a Catholic and went to church every week and took the sacraments. It never really touched the core of my being.

My comfortable existence is reduced to a shallow meaningless party.

I learned to change my accent; in England, your accent identifies you very strongly with a class, and I did not want to be held back.

It has very little to do with my work, but if your image is not sexy enough, people won't listen. It's part of the game.

I've spent too many years at war with myself, the doctor has told me it's not good for my health.

At night a candle's brighter than the sun

Men go crazy in congregation. They only get better one by one.

Our politicians, they all seemed like game show hosts to me.

I exist in a state of almost perpetual hysteria.

I've been to every single book I know
To soothe the thoughts that plague me so.

I quite like mistakes. I think they're human.

I've spent a bit of time with the Prince of Wales, who I respect greatly. I'd give two cheers for the Monarchy.

I have been through various fitness regimes. I used to run about five miles a day and I did aerobics for a while.

If "Manners maketh man," as someone said
Then he's the hero of the day
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself, no matter what they say."
(Englishman in New York)

Takes more than combat boots to make a man.

I always stayed fit because I'm a performer, and all of those things help me to perform.

Without the voice of reason, every faith is its own curse.
(History Will Teach Us Nothing)

I never made promises lightly
There may have been some that I've broken
But I swear in the days still left
We will walk in fields of gold

I've been the lowest low on the planet, I've been a sinner all my days. And I was living with my hands on the trigger, I had no sense to change my ways.

I drive back into town with the two crinkly notes in my pocket and wonder if I could support a family this way, doomed to play dinner dances until I too have one foot in the grave. I shudder at the possibility, and think about poor Meg in her sickbed. What am I going to do? On the way back I pass a big roundabout at the end of the Coast Road. It is March, and the roundabout is covered in daffodils. I circle it twice, an idea forming in my head. I park in a nearby street. It is early morning and there is no one around. I check for police cars and head across the road to the roundabout. Half an hour later I let myself into Megan's flat and slowly open her bedroom door. My arms are full of daffodils, maybe a hundred all told, their drooping yellow trumpets lighting up the entire room. Meg starts to cry, and so do I. The next morning our prayers are answered, but our relief is mixed with a subtle, unspoken regret.

I see music as one language. If one musical form eats its own tail, it dies. So it needs to be a mongrel, it needs to be hybridised.

The more irrational of us are worried about the millennium ending - as if a date would really matter.

I don't belong to a church or political party or a group of any kind. I feel that Amnesty International is the most civilized organization in history. Its currency is the written word. Its weapon is the letter; that's why I am a member. I believe in its non-violence; I believe in its effectiveness. Its dignity and its sense of commitment. Its focus on individuals and the concentration and tenacity with which they defend those imprisoned for their ideas has earned it the cautious respect of repressive governments throughout the world.

When the world is running down, you make the best of what's still around.

An uncle of mine emigrated to Canada and couldn't take his guitar with him. When I found it in the attic, I'd found a friend for life.

Mr. Breschnev says we will bury you, I don't subscribe to that point of view. It seems like such an ignorant thing to do, if the Russians love their children, too.

How can I save my little boy from Oppenheimer's deadly toy?

Nothing in your life is beyond redemption.

Every ripple on the ocean, every leaf on every tree, every sand dune in the desert, every power we never see.

Success always necessitates a degree of ruthlessness. Given the choice of friendship or success, I'd probably choose success.

If you play music with passion and love and honesty, then it will nourish your soul, heal your wounds and make your life worth living. Music is its own reward.

I feel this music has nurtured me as I've been immersing myself in it. I've felt supported by it.

...being in love is to be relieved of gravity.

Songs are built by whimsy, faulty memory, and free association.

You have to be yourself. Stay true to who and what you are. And if people still like you, that's great! If they don't, that's their problem.

Our so-called leaders speak
With words they try to jail you
The subjugate the meek
But it's the rhetoric of failure

If you love someone, set them free.

The deeper you get into Yoga you realize it is a spiritual practice. It's a journey I'm making. I'm heading that way.

He deals the cards to find the answer
The sacred geometry of chance
The hidden law of a probable outcome
The numbers lead a dance
I know that the spades
Are the swords of a soldier
I know that the clubs are weapons of war
I know that diamonds
Mean money for this art
But that's not the shape of my heart

They build machines they can't control, and bury the waste in a great big hole.

Every breath you take and every move you make
Every bond you break, every step you take
I'll be watchin' you
Every single day and every word you say
Every game you play, every night you stay
I'll be watchin' you

Convince an enemy, convince him that he's wrong. To win a bloodless battle, the victory is long. A simple act of faith, reason over might. To blow up his children would only prove him right.

My logic's been drowned in a sea of emotion.

Yoga is almost like music in a way; there's no end to it.

It's a big enough umbrella, but it's always me that ends up getting wet.

If we seek solace in the prisons of the distant past
Security in human systems we're told will always always last
Emotions are the sail and blind faith is the mast
Without the breath of real freedom we're getting nowhere fast.
(History Will Teach Us Nothing)

The logical process will often be the safe one. I tend, when I'm given that choice, to go the way that's not safe.

If you make your living writing, and you can't write anything, it's over. It's very frightening.

Men go crazy in congregations
They only get better one by one

In my quest to become unique, I've become a statistic.

I write the music, produce it and the band plays within the parameters that I set.

You'll remember me when the west wind moves
Upon the fields of barley
You can tell the sun in his jealous sky
When we walked in fields of gold

Peter Townshend shows us it's all right to grow up. There is dignity after rock'n'roll.

I see a city in the desert lies
The vanity of an ancient king
But the city lies in broken pieces
While the wind howls and the vultures sing

Every day is a brand new day!

There is no monopoly on common sense on either side of the political fence.

Without the breath of real freedom we're getting nowhere fast.

I think love has something to do with allowing a person you claim to love to enter a larger arena than the one you create for them.

I'm not much of a family man. I'm just not that into it. I love kids, I adore them, but I don't want to live my life for them.

I'm very much afraid of being mad - that's my one fear.

I think you can get the wrong impression about me from my work and think I'm always a bit down. I'm not that way at all. I'm fun-loving.

I don't understand American football at all. It looks like all-in wrestling with crash helmets.

I never saw no miracle of science that did not go from a blessing to a curse.

I miss England. I miss the weather. I've spent moss of the last 25 years on tour. I'm ready to come home.

It's never easy to write a song. It's the most difficult thing I do.

The War on Drugs has failed, but it's worse than that. It is actively harming our society. Violent crime is thriving in the shadows to which the drug trade has been consigned. People who genuinely need help can't get it. Neither can people who need medical marijuana to treat terrible diseases. We are spending billions, filling up our prisons with non-violent offenders and sacrificing our liberties.

Sooner or later we learn to throw the past away, history will teach us nothing.

One of the rewards of success is freedom, the ability to do whatever you like.

Letizia Gambi is a stunning vocalist

I think I mentioned to Bob [Geldof] I could make love for eight hours. What I didn't say was that this included four hours of begging and then dinner and a movie.

Every road I walked would take me down to the sea
With every broken promise in my sack
And every love would always send the ship of my heart
Over the rolling sea

My friends are Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen, and we're singing about mortality, getting older. It's an interesting time.

The Super Bowl is Americana at its most kitsch and fun.

I think the labyrinth is an interesting metaphor for our lives as musicians. We're always being drawn toward the center of it because that's where the mystery is. What is music? It's a journey.

Takes more than combat gear to make a man
Takes more than a license for a gun
Confront your enemies, avoid them when you can
A gentleman will walk but never run

Hell is full of high court judges.

Humans make the mistake of believing that it is their right to survive. Species die out on this planet all the time without anyone noticing. The planet will still be there, and we must lose this attitude of divine right, that something will save us ...

The acceptance of death gives you more of a stake in life, in living life happily, as it should be lived. Living for the moment.

Sweet desert rose
Each of her veils, a secret promise
This desert flower
No sweet perfume ever tortured me more than this

Don't judge me, you could be me in another life.