Otis Quotes

When I started playing, I played in R&B bands. I played James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding and all that. ~ Neil Peart

There's some homophobia within black community, but there's some strong homophobia throughout the whole of American society as well, particularly throughout the South to a degree, whether white or black. And since many of us migrated from the South, that could be a strong connection along those lines. ~ Otis Moss III

Jesus will judge us not only for what we did, but also for what we could have done and didn't. ~ George Otis

You Can Fly But Your Body Can't

My first seat was in first class between Penny and Belinda. Before I poured Rémy Martin down my throat and had to come see what the folks back here think of things.

316

'Cool out, you know, I didn't mean it, I don't really hate you,' I hear someone say.
While, over the intercom, the pilot jabbers. He's explaining that some dysfunction, once we're on the ground, can be easily fixed with a pin. I don't know, at that point, how much any of us will care. Maybe I'm drunk, but seems like they could give the plane to the Arabs once we've all made our connecting flights.

317

The beer nuts just served to me in a cello packet are the most delicious food I've ever tasted in my life.
Back at Dallas-Fort Worth I put an Otis Redding CD into my player and I doubt I'll ever have a reason to take it out.
Through the window, trigonometry, under a silky pink sky. ~ Mary Robison

General Otis is proclaimed American Military Governor of the Philippines and I protest a thousand times and with all the force in my soul against such pretension. ~ Emilio Aguinaldo

I will fight to the death for one's right to be able to practice in their temple, their mosque, or in their church, even if they have a different belief than I do. ~ Otis Moss III

Everyone hates clowns," Otis said. "Even other clowns hate clowns. ~ Rick Riordan

I love England from head to toe. I love the weather, the people. I was there in the summer and it was nice. The people are so groovy. ~ Otis Redding

I get a wave of pride in America when I look back at what we've accomplished in the field of music. ~ Johnny Otis

There is no English equivalent for the French word flâneur. Cassell's dictionary defines flâneur as a stroller, saunterer, drifter but none of these terms seems quite accurate. There is no English equivalent for the term, just as there is no Anglo-Saxon counterpart of that essentially Gallic individual, the deliberately aimless pedestrian, unencumbered by any obligation or sense of urgency, who, being French and therefore frugal, wastes nothing, including his time which he spends with the leisurely discrimination of a gourmet, savoring the multiple flavors of his city. ~ Cornelia Otis Skinner

The only principles of public conduct that are worthy of a gentleman or a man are to sacrifice estate, ease, health, and applause, and even life, to the sacred calls of his country. ~ James Otis

I want people to see an honesty within me. I'm not trying to be the next Sam Cooke or Otis Redding. ~ Leon Bridges

With This Ring
I give my all to you
Now and my whole life through
With this ring ~ Clyde Otis

Once we start worrying too often or too deeply about what certain individuals and what certain groups think about us, then we might start selling our souls for the sake of expediency. I suggest if that day ever comes, then the press has had it. ~ Otis Chandler

I've found that balance is key. I'm no longer an extremist in any one direction. ~ Carre Otis

Any man's measure is determined by what he will do when he is faced with his own deep need. Not how high he may reach but how low he may kneel. ~ Dr. J. Otis Yoder

From Adam's day until now men everywhere have tried to find their own way to meet God's standard of holiness. Has anyone been successful? No! ~ Dr. J. Otis Yoder

Them pains, when blues pains grab you, you'll sing the blues right. ~ Otis Rush

When we go into the 80's it has more of a pop feel. But it's what I wanted to do. I wasn't trying to reach. See, that's the thing with me, I never wanted to reach any particular crowd. I'm writing for myself. If I don't like it I won't play it for anybody. ~ Shuggie Otis

Listen, ump. How can you sleep with the lights on? ~ Amos Otis

You have to find a balance with food in your life - you can't take out food. It can be absolutely terrifying. ~ Carre Otis

We're in the media business today. We're in the business of helping authors and publishers market their books to readers. And that's where we make our money. We sell book launch packages to authors and publishers and really help accelerate, build that early buzz that a book needs to succeed when it launches and accelerate that growth through ads on the site. ~ Otis Chandler

When I was young, I just sat down and started playing Chopsticks at the piano. I got so far and then lost interest. Eventually, I regained it and started writing songs. ~ Otis Blackwell

I was essentially paid to perpetuate the myth that we are all, or should at least try to be, 17 and a size 2 forever. ~ Carre Otis

The next morning, when the Otis family met at breakfast, they discussed the ghost at some length. The United States Minister was naturally a little annoyed to find that his present had not been accepted. "I have no wish," he said, "to do the ghost any personal injury, and I must say that, considering the length of time he has been in the house, I don't think it is at all polite to throw pillows at him" - a very just remark, at which, I am sorry to say, the twins burst into shouts of laughter. "Upon the other hand," he continued, "if he really declines to use the Rising Sun Lubricator, we shall have to take his chains from him. It would be quite impossible to sleep, with such a noise going on outside the bedrooms. ~ Oscar Wilde

Women keep a special corner of their hearts for sins they have never committed. ~ Cornelia Otis Skinner

The study of the human character opens at once a beautiful and a deformed picture of the soul. ~ Mercy Otis Warren

I had my first seizure, and I had to go in for heart surgery. ~ Carre Otis

I believe that as women, we must commit ourselves to sustaining the progress made by our foremothers who fought so hard for women's equality and liberation. ~ Carre Otis

My dear sister, I hope, when God Almighty in his righteous providence shall take me out of time into eternity, that it will be by a flash of lightning. ~ James Otis

Elvis wore a halo. Otis Redding did, too. You knew you were playing with a star when you played with them. ~ Donald Dunn

My parents had a huge pile of records - vinyl! - that I loved, especially the Motown stuff, Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding. ~ Jonny Lang

I grew up loving Etta James and Aretha Franklin and Al Green and Otis Redding, and I just love old-school R&B. It's just music that moves you and grooves you, and it was very important, I think, for music. ~ Elle King

MAY it please your Honors: I was desired by one of the court to look into the books, and consider the question now before them concerning Writs of Assistance. ~ James Otis

I had dropped out of school and was a runaway, so I didn't have family to fall back on if I didn't work. I didn't have a lot of other options of making money other than modeling. ~ Carre Otis

'I'll sit on him,' Otis says and laughs like it's the funniest thing in the world. He twirls a small ball of fire in one hand and a Desert Eagle .50 Caliber in the other. If Seven didn't know him, he'd probably be running away as fast as he could. It's a big gun. ~ T.J. Klune

Our situation is truly delicate & critical. On the one hand we are in need of a strong federal government founded on principles that will support the prosperity & union of the colonies. On the other we have struggled for liberty & made costly sacrifices at her shrine and there are still many among us who revere her name to much to relinquish (beyond a certain medium) the rights of man for the dignity of government. ~ Mercy Otis Warren

We are all human first and the human relationship regardless of race, religion or gender is one of respect. ~ Otis Teague

No publisher in America improved a paper so quickly on so grand a scale, took a paper that was marginal in qualities and brought it to excellence as Otis Chandler did. ~ David Halberstam

I am not naturally that thin, so I had to go through everything from using drugs to diet pills to laxatives to fasting. Those were my main ways of controlling my weight. ~ Carre Otis

It seems that people are more comfortable with the private outrage about gay marriage, because when you are outraged about this issue, it requires no work. There's no work that you have to do when you're outraged about a gay couple. There is work that you have to do if you want to see black fathers raise their children. There is work that you have to do if you want to see a school develop. ~ Otis Moss III

I'm proud that today, at 43 years old, I've come to value the aging process and focus on inner rather than outer beauty. ~ Carre Otis

That it is not same-gender relationships that are destroying marriage. What is actually destroying marriage is high unemployment, incarceration, a lack of education and ministers living in contradiction where they speak about holiness on one side but yet are living in adultery on the other. ~ Otis Moss III

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, take out the TCP. ~ Otis Redding

Dew depends not on Parliament. ~ James Otis

I always figured it was best if I write my songs, take them to my publisher and just lay back. There used to be so many things going on - getting to the artist, getting to the publishers - you know, politics. I just didn't want to get mixed up in all of that. ~ Otis Blackwell

I got a drum set at the age of four. I wasn't playing that well, just kind of banging around. I just wanted to play drums and my dad got me a set. I played for several years, but I wasn't meant to be a drummer, I guess. I can play drums on my own things - obviously on some of my own records I play drums. But I didn't start playing guitar until I was 11. ~ Shuggie Otis

Generally places that are comfortable with excellence don't call themselves centers of excellence. Has anyone heard of a Princeton University Center of Excellence? Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center of Excellence? ~ Otis Webb Brawley

If you are really standing up for the family, you then have to say, how do we change our school system, how do we fix tax policy so that our families are supported? ~ Otis Moss III

And there were times when one yielded quite shamelessly to the sentimental. They were more likely to be times of crickets, I think, than of birds - when it was impossible not to feel, like another essence of the sunlight, the bittersweet of life that lingers about old houses, and places where men have died, and things that forgotten hands have touched. ~ Harrison Gray Otis Dwight

The pressure was if I didn't get into that dress size someone else would - someone else would get the job. ~ Carre Otis

I think that we can't deny the public's want for balancing out the images that are out there depicting women. Not all of us are 17 and a size two. ~ Carre Otis

I pray God I may never be brought to the melancholy trial; but, if ever I should, it will then be known how far I can reduce to practice principles which I know to be founded in truth. ~ James Otis

Wells is teaching us to think. Burroughs and his lesser imitators are teaching us not to think. Of course, Burroughs is teaching us to wonder. The sense of wonder is in essence a religious state, blanketing out criticism. Wells was always a critic, even in his most wondrous and romantic tales.

And there, I believe, the two poles of modern fantasy stand defined. At one pole wait Wells and his honorable predecessors such as Swift; at the other, Burroughs and the commercial producers, such as Otis Adelbart Kline, and the weirdies, and horror merchants such as H.P. Lovecraft, and so all the way past Tolkien to today's non-stop fantasy worlders. Mary Shelley stands somewhere at the equator of this metaphor. ~ Brian W. Aldiss

Make the most of the moments with those you love, it's once upon a person to Live and then Die. Give them the most precious gift of all Time! ~ Otis Teague

The doctor asked what my diet was like and I had to sit down and realize it's not normal, and hadn't been normal for about 20 years. ~ Carre Otis

Otis and his brother, Marvin, pulled the god's chariot. They also provided Thor with a never-ending supply of goat meat. Each night, Thor killed and ate them for dinner. Each morning, Thor resurrected them. This is why you should go to college, kids - so when you grow up you do not have to take a job as a magical goat. ~ Rick Riordan

I write titles of songs a lot. sometimes I'll end up writing a song that I don't have a title for and I'll say, 'Oh, this goes with that title. ~ Shuggie Otis

Stand Fast, Stand Firm, Stand Sure, Stand True. ~ Harrison Gray Otis

The French have no such expression as 'killing time.' In their more philosophical vocabulary the term is 'passing time,' which means savoring all moments of it each to his individual enjoyment. While we battle with time, they relax with tempo. ~ Cornelia Otis Skinner

We should be supportive of the president and supportive of rights of all in a pluralistic democracy that we're called to love. And we live our faith; we don't legislate our faith. ~ Otis Moss III

True Christianity cuts across all other religions and creates its own culture. ~ Dr. J. Otis Yoder

Mankind may amuse themselves with theoretic systems of liberty ... but we can only discern its true value by the practical and wretched effects of slavery. ~ Mercy Otis Warren

My daughters, your daughters, our daughters deserve safety, protection, and the freedom to make their own choices about their personal lives and their physical selves. ~ Carre Otis

In the past, I often found that when I reached out for a fast cure it led me down a slippery slope of more medications, hopeful dependence on the next prescription and ultimately a much longer drawn-out illness. ~ Carre Otis

I listened to Otis harrumphing and snoring down by my feet and felt like the only person left on earth still awake, the only person who knew the secret that not a single thing in this world was worth a damn. ~ Carrie Mesrobian

We need our goats!" I yelled.
I waded through the crowd until I reached our chariot. I grabbed Otis's face and pressed my forehead against his.
"Testing," I whispered. "Is this goat on? Thor, can you hear me?"
"You have beautiful eyes," Otis told me. ~ Rick Riordan

I grew up on antibiotics. Every ailment - sore throats, earaches, flus - warranted a trip to the doctor and in most cases some kind of prescription. ~ Carre Otis

My parents were both from the East and had moved to San Francisco only so my father could go to law school there. ~ Carre Otis

The blood-stain has been much admired by tourists and others, and cannot be removed." "That is all nonsense," cried Washington Otis; "Pinkerton's Champion Stain Remover and Paragon Detergent will clean it up in no time," and before the terrified housekeeper could interfere, he had fallen upon his knees, and was rapidly scouring the floor with a small stick of what looked like a black cosmetic. In a few moments no trace of the blood-stain could be seen. ~ Oscar Wilde

When I do listen to music, I'm more prone to listen to the people I've always listened to: George Jones, Otis Redding, Alison Krauss and Emmylou Harris. ~ Dolly Parton

And this is why I have concluded that although every racial, ethnic, and religious group in the United States claims to want a piece of the American dream, there is no group that apologizes more for its success than black people. ~ Lawrence Otis Graham

If you want to be a singer, you've got to concentrate on it twenty-four hours a day. You can't be a well driller, too. You've got to concentrate on the business of entertaining and writing songs. Always think different from the next person. Don't ever do a song as you heard somebody else do it. ~ Otis Redding

Society wants to categorize everything, but to me it's all African-American music. ~ Johnny Otis

I bicycle 12,000-foot mountain passes, run, cross train, skate-ski, hike and mountain bike. ~ Carre Otis

This loneliness won't leave me alone. ~ Otis Redding

Let the consequences be what they will, I am determined to proceed. ~ James Otis

Tongue after you lose a tooth. Time after time, my mind kept going to that empty spot, the spot where I felt like she should be. When I told Gloria Dump about Otis and how he got arrested, she laughed so hard she had to grab hold of her false teeth so they wouldn't fall out of her mouth. ~ Kate DiCamillo

I felt a little uncomfortable because, when I went in to the military, I was the main male vocalist they had and when I came out they had like two or three vocalists. Otis came in when I was in the military, too. ~ William Bell

My weight fluctuated when I was 30, and I did the unthinkable - I stepped out as a plus-sized model. ~ Carre Otis

Democratic principles are the result of equality of condition. ~ Mercy Otis Warren

We come in many different shapes and sizes, and we need to support each other and our differences. Our beauty is in our differences. ~ Carre Otis

To Mr. Blot, who went through life an unconscious example of the raison d'être of the British Empire, a shipwreck was merely one of the many things to be ignored. His was a calming influence. ~ Cornelia Otis Skinner

Though my parents assured me over and over again that I wasn't stupid or slow, I sensed that my dyslexia was now a stigma on all of us. ~ Carre Otis

The divine order of human society from primeval days was based upon certain rights conveyed by the Creator. The right of position, next to God; the right to procreate, in order to be in charge; the right to procure, in order to survive. These rights of necessity required man to maintain a meaningful and submissive relation to God who bestowed them. ~ Dr. J. Otis Yoder

The Creator did not speak man into existence as He did all else which He made, but He began with previously made material. So in the restoration process He did not speak the restoration into reality by fiat. Rather He began the process through a series of connected acts and events. And certainly no act of the Eternal Creator would ever be without purpose or reason. ~ Dr. J. Otis Yoder

Every man's measurement is determined by his responses when he is on his knees before God. ~ Dr. J. Otis Yoder

There are many influences in my music, not only blues. R&B, Motown, gospel, old timey, jazz, even classical are all part of what I do. I started with classical, then country, then blues, and after that I started listening heavily to Motown and gospel. My earliest efforts as a songwriter were soul. Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, Wilson Pickett, Gladys Knight, James Brown, Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye and Fontella Bass are just a few of the names that come to mind as the God's of soul and Motown. ~ Rory Block

One of the most essential branches of English liberty is the freedom of one's house. A man's house is his castle. ~ James Otis

Jesus did not define the kingdom as being in the hearts of the Pharisees or anyone else. The kingdom is an objective reality when the King is present. ~ Dr. J. Otis Yoder

Parliaments are in all cases to declare what is good for the whole; but it is not the declaration of parliament that makes it so. ~ James Otis

Public opinion which, to be sure, can at times be helpful, must never for an instant swerve us from what we know in our heart we are trying to convey. For honesty is the great requisite of art. If we remain honest with ourselves, art, which is always there, never lets us down. ~ Cornelia Otis Skinner

I didn't know Albert back then - I just learned to play that way. He and I were the only guys that played left-handed. Then left-handed people came from every direction. ~ Otis Rush

Purpose draws potential, potential brings to life Destiny. Understanding you have a purpose is the first brick on the road to Destiny! ~ Otis Teague

The honorable William Penn, late governor of Pennsylvania, was chosen agent to the Court of Britain, and directed to deliver the petition to the King himself and to endeavor by his personal influence to procure a favorable reception to this last address. ~ Mercy Otis Warren

Part of treatment for drugs and alcohol is you abstain from these, but with eating disorders you can't abstain from food so the treatment is longer than drugs and alcohol. ~ Carre Otis

Otis, on the other hand, didn't miss home a bit. He had always hated the stairs in our house in Massachusetts. He was now five years old and very large for a golden retriever. I thought he was fat, but Bruce insisted he was just "big-boned". Either way, climbing the steep stairs at home was a challenge. Whenever Bruce and I went upstairs, Otis would sit near the bottom step, carefully calculating whether we would be on the second floor long enough to make it worthwhile to heave himself up the stairs. And on the way down the stairs, Otis was like a fully loaded eighteen-wheeler barreling down a steep hill. We just got out of his way.
But in the new Washington apartment building, Otis had an elevator. As far as he was concerned, life was sweet. ~ Elizabeth Warren

In the frequent fits of anger to which the males especially are subject, the efforts of their inner feeling cause the fluids to flow more strongly towards that part of their head; in some there is hence deposited a secretion of horny matter, and in others of bony matter mixed with horny matter, which gives rise to solid protuberances: thus we have the origin of horns and antlers, with which the head of most of these animals is armed. ~ Laura Otis

In the midst of death's relentless power,
I yet among the living stand ~ Mercy Otis Warren

I was born in 1968, just eighteen months after my sister Chrisse and just one year after Dad passed the bar exam. ~ Carre Otis