Wadada Leo Smith quote: "All art is political. Yes. Even the stuff that sounds like bubble-gum songs. I think all art is, by nature, intended to motivate society for change, and the only reason change doesn't happen is because within the target population, courage is lacking."

I write all the time. I always have. I can pick up my horn to warm up, and an idea will pop into my ...
WADADA LEO SMITH

I started composing when I was around 13, and back then, people used to say that I needed to be a co...
WADADA LEO SMITH

I always felt of myself as a composer, performer, improviser. I've never called myself a jazz ma...
WADADA LEO SMITH

Everything and anything is valuable.
WADADA LEO SMITH

The artist is the consciousness of society... but musicians' role is very special.
WADADA LEO SMITH

I think all art is, by nature, intended to motivate society for change, and the only reason change d...
WADADA LEO SMITH

I don't set out to win awards. I don't think any musician does, but when you receive an awar...
WADADA LEO SMITH

When I first started, I worked with my father, Alex 'Little Bill' Wallace; he was a guitaris...
WADADA LEO SMITH

My solo playing utilizes the deployment of suggestive psychic rhythms. I'll state these througho...
WADADA LEO SMITH

When you live in the South, you're constantly part of the civil rights movement.
WADADA LEO SMITH

I'm an optimist. I have always been, and I will continue to be. So I believe there's always ...
WADADA LEO SMITH

The only thing that makes change possible is the idea of developing some kind of institution, becaus...
WADADA LEO SMITH

There's nothing unnatural in creation.
WADADA LEO SMITH

When Barack Obama was elected, it immediately brought out all the differences in society.
WADADA LEO SMITH

I don't set out to win awards. I don't think any musician does, but when you receive an awar...
WADADA LEO SMITH

We have these old fashioned ideas. For instance, here in America, we talk about democracy - but we d...
WADADA LEO SMITH

I have been in dialogue with my family about what can actually be done. We've come up with this ...
WADADA LEO SMITH

Jazz infers a style, but creative music has a wider field and wider specification about it. We know ...
WADADA LEO SMITH

I've got that Beethoven energy, that Stravinsky energy. And it's all a gift from the Creator...
WADADA LEO SMITH

From now back to the past, we can observe clearly that none of us is free.
WADADA LEO SMITH

I wanted to identify that the black experience is American experience.
WADADA LEO SMITH

Seeing the bigger picture opens your eyes to what is the truth.
WADADA LEO SMITH

All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
LEO TOLSTOY

The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity.
LEO TOLSTOY

Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not g...
LEO TOLSTOY

Nietzsche was stupid and abnormal.
LEO TOLSTOY

Extremists think 'communication' means agreeing with them.
LEO ROSTEN

All violence consists in some people forcing others, under threat of suffering or death, to do what ...
LEO TOLSTOY

One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between Man and Nature shall not be broken...
LEO TOLSTOY

Even in the valley of the shadow of death, two and two do not make six.
LEO TOLSTOY

He never chooses an opinion; he just wears whatever happens to be in style.
LEO TOLSTOY

Our body is a machine for living. It is organized for that, it is its nature. Let life go on in it u...
LEO TOLSTOY

Music is the shorthand of emotion.
LEO TOLSTOY

True life is lived when tiny changes occur.
LEO TOLSTOY

You can be a follower of Muhammad or Jesus or Buddha or whomever. Always, they said that the most es...
LEO BUSCAGLIA

Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, ev...
LEO TOLSTOY

All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love.
LEO TOLSTOY

Only those live who do good.
LEO TOLSTOY

But the peasants -- how do the peasants die?
LEO TOLSTOY

He who has a mistaken idea of life, will always have a mistaken idea of death.
LEO TOLSTOY

A writer is dear and necessary for us only in the measure of which he reveals to us the inner workin...
LEO TOLSTOY

A writer writes not because he is educated but because he is driven by the need to communicate. Behi...
LEO ROSTEN

Every writer is a narcissist. This does not mean that he is vain; it only means that he is hopelessl...
LEO ROSTEN

It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning an...
LEO BUSCAGLIA

If I don't have wisdom, I can teach you only ignorance.
LEO BUSCAGLIA

The best students come from homes where education is revered: where there are books, and children se...
LEO BUSCAGLIA

I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things... I play with leaves. I skip down the street an...
LEO BUSCAGLIA

Love is always open arms. If you close your arms about love you will find that you are left holding ...
LEO BUSCAGLIA

The easiest thing to be in the world is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people wan...
LEO BUSCAGLIA

Never idealize others. They will never live up to your expectations.
LEO BUSCAGLIA

Love always creates, it never destroys. In this lies man's only promise.
LEO BUSCAGLIA

The minute we stop learning, we begin death, the process of dying. We learn from each other with eve...
LEO BUSCAGLIA

Death is a challenge. It tells us not to waste time... It tells us to tell each other right now that...
LEO BUSCAGLIA

Hugs make you feel psychologically more secure and together.
LEO BUSCAGLIA

Life lived for tomorrow will always be just a day away from being realized.
LEO BUSCAGLIA

In quiet and untroubled times it seems to every administrator that it is only by his efforts that th...
LEO TOLSTOY

There is one evident, indubitable manifestation of the Divinity, and that is the laws of right which...
LEO TOLSTOY

Hope is ambiguous, but fear is precise.
LEO ROSTEN

I came to believe it not true that "the coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave man only one." I ...
LEO ROSTEN

Man has received direct from God only one instrument wherewith to know himself and to know his relat...
LEO TOLSTOI

I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance ...
LEO TOLSTOY

The work of an advertising agency is warmly and immediately human. It deals with human needs, wants,...
LEO BURNETT

it's much better to do good in a way that no one knows anything about it.
LEO TOLSTOY

True science investigates and brings to human perception such truths and such knowledge as the peopl...
LEO TOLSTOY

What is the cause of historical events? Power. What is power? Power is the sum total of wills transf...
LEO TOLSTOY

Truth is stranger than fiction; fiction has to make sense.
LEO ROSTEN

A man is like a fraction whose numerator is what he is and whose denominator is what he thinks of hi...
LEO TOLSTOY

The only thing that we know is that we know nothing and that is the highest flight of human wisdom.
LEO TOLSTOY

Happiness comes only when we push our brains and hearts to the farthest reaches of which we are capa...
LEO ROSTEN

I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom a...
LEO TOLSTOY

The hero of my tale, whom I love with all the power of my soul, whom I have tried to portray in all ...
LEO TOLSTOY

To say that a work of art is good, but incomprehensible to the majority of men, is the same as sayin...
LEO TOLSTOY

The Brahmins say that in their books there are many predictions of times in which it will rain. But ...
LEO TOLSTOY

In the dark colony of night, when I consider man's magnificent capacity for malice, madness, folly, ...
LEO ROSTEN

It is easy to believe in freedom of speech for those with whom we agree.
LEO MCKERN

Be bad, but at least don't be a liar, a deceiver!
LEO TOLSTOY

Don't lie if you don't have to.
LEO SZILARD

The changes in our life must come from the impossibility to live otherwise than according to the dem...
LEO TOLSTOY

Courage is the capacity to confirm what can be imagined.
LEO ROSTEN

But that's the whole aim of civilization: to make everything a source of enjoyment.
LEO TOLSTOY

I understood, not with my intellect but with my whole being, that no theories of the rationality of ...
LEO TOLSTOY

Anything is better than lies and deceit!
LEO TOLSTOY

Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to u...
LEO TOLSTOY

If so many men, so many minds, certainly so many hearts, so many kinds of love.
LEO TOLSTOY

Rummaging in our souls, we often dig up something that ought to have lain there unnoticed.
LEO TOLSTOY

I think... if it is true that
there are as many minds as there
are heads, then there are...
LEO TOLSTOY

It's not given to people to judge what's right or wrong. People have eternally been mistaken and wil...
LEO TOLSTOY

Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.
LEO TOLSTOY

It's hard to love a woman and do anything.
LEO TOLSTOY

She had no need to ask why he had come. She knew as certainly as if he had told her that he was here...
LEO TOLSTOY

A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he parti...
LEO TOLSTOY

We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.
LEO TOLSTOY

Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity...
LEO TOLSTOY

O, to be sure, we laugh less and play less and wear uncomfortable disguises like adults, but beneath...
LEO ROSTEN

A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is e...
LEO TOLSTOY

In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.
LEO TOLSTOY

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
LEO TOLSTOY

I simply want to live; to cause no evil to anyone but myself.
LEO TOLSTOY

Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.
LEO TOLSTOY

Instead of focusing on how much you can accomplish, focus on how much you can absolutely love what y...
LEO BABAUTA

To swear off making mistakes is very easy. All you have to do is to swear off having ideas.
LEO BURNETT

The best generals I have known were... stupid or absent-minded men. Not only does a good army comman...
LEO TOLSTOY

The strongest of all warriors are these two
LEO TOLSTOY

A wonderful realization will be the day you realize that you are unique in all the world. There is n...
LEO BUSCAGLIA

Humor is, I think, the sublets and chanciest of literary forms. It is surely not accidental that the...
LEO ROSTEN

I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I ...
LEO TOLSTOY

We see things as we are, not as they are.
LEO ROSTEN

A Frenchman is self-assured because he regards himself personally both in mind and body as irresisti...
LEO TOLSTOY

I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be usefu...
LEO ROSTEN

Life is uncharted territory. It reveals its story one moment at a time.
LEO BUSCAGLIA

When you reach for the stars, you may not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud...
LEO BURNETT

Love is life. And if you miss love, you miss life.
LEO BUSCAGLIA

Love can never grow old. Locks may lose their brown and gold. Cheeks may fade and hollow grow. But t...
LEO BUSCAGLIA

Don't smother each other. No one can grow in the shade.
LEO BUSCAGLIA

Don't hold to anger, hurt or pain. They steal your energy and keep you from love.
LEO BUSCAGLIA

Perfect love is rare indeed - for to be a lover will require that you continually have the subtlety ...
LEO BUSCAGLIA

You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about ...
LEO AIKMAN

We lost because we told ourselves we lost.
LEO TOLSTOY

Change is the end result of all true learning. Change involves three things: First, a dissatisfactio...
LEO BUSCAGLIA

What helps people, helps business.
LEO BURNETT

I believe in rules. Sure I do. If there weren't any rules, how could you break them?
LEO DUROCHER

Extremists think communication means agreeing with them.
LEO ROSTEN

I am always with myself and it is I who am my tormentor.
LEO TOLSTOY

Christianity, with its doctrine of humility, of forgiveness, of love, is incompatible with the state...
LEO TOLSTOY

Buy a steak for a player on another club after the game, but don't even speak to him on the field. G...
LEO DUROCHER

If you don't win, you're going to be fired. If you do win, you've only put off the day you're going ...
LEO DUROCHER

I never questioned the integrity of an umpire. Their eyesight, yes.
LEO DUROCHER

It was Brooklyn against the world. They were not only complete fanatics, but they knew baseball like...
LEO DUROCHER

There are only five things you can do in baseball - run, throw, catch, hit, and hit with power.
LEO DUROCHER

I never did say that you can't be a nice guy and win. I said that if I was playing third base and my...
LEO DUROCHER

The sobs and tears of joy he had not foreseen rose with such force within him that his whole body sh...
LEO TOLSTOY

Ancient Egyptians believed that upon death they would be asked two questions and their answers would...
LEO BUSCAGLIA

Satire is focused bitterness.
LEO ROSTEN

In historic events, the so-called great men are labels giving names to events, and like labels they ...
LEO TOLSTOY

There is no greatness where simplicity, goodness and truth are absent.
LEO TOLSTOY

The subject of history is the life of peoples and of humanity. To catch and pin down in words--that ...
LEO TOLSTOY

People differ in capacity, skill, health, strength; and unequal fortune is a necessary result of une...
LEO XIII

If you are going to do something wrong, at least enjoy it.
LEO ROSTEN

Though it is possible to utter words only with the intention to fulfill the will of God, it is very ...
LEO TOLSTOY

What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness.
LEO TOLSTOY

I sometimes think there is a dimension beyond the four of experience and Einstein: insight, that fif...
LEO ROSTEN

I believe that you control your destiny, that you can be what you want to be. You can also stop and ...
LEO BUSCAGLIA

He never chooses an opinion, he just wears whatever happens to be in style.
LEO TOLSTOY

All happy families are alike, but an unhappy family is unhappy after its own fashion.
LEO TOLSTOY

If we wish to free ourselves from enslavement, we must choose freedom and the responsibility this en...
LEO BUSCAGLIA

The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower, share a bit of knowledge and it becomes an...
LEO BUSCAGLIA

Your talent is God's gift to you; what you do with it is your gift to God.
LEO BUSCAGLIA

Blessed is the person who is too busy to worry in the daytime, and too sleepy to worry at night.
LEO AIKMAN

A minority is always compelled to think. That is the blessing of being in the minority.
LEO BAECK

Show me a good loser and I'll show you an idiot.
LEO DUROCHER

Hypocrisy in anything whatever may deceive the cleverest and most penetrating man, but the least wid...
LEO TOLSTOY

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest co...
LEO BUSCAGLIA

What you are is God's gift to you, what you do with yourself is your gift to God.
LEO BUSCAGLIA

The easiest thing to be in the world is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people wan...
LEO BUSCAGLIA

We all need each other.
LEO BUSCAGLIA

Each of our acts makes a statement as to our purpose.
LEO BUSCAGLIA

What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life.
LEO BUSCAGLIA

We are no longer puppets being manipulated by outside powerful forces: we become the powerful force ...
LEO BUSCAGLIA

You don't save a pitcher for tomorrow. Tomorrow, it may rain.
LEO DUROCHER

Give me some scratching, diving, hungry ballplayers who come to kill you.
LEO DUROCHER

There are two big forces at work, external and internal. We have very little control over external f...
LEO BUSCAGLIA

I have a very strong feeling that the opposite of love is not hate -- it's apathy. It's not giving a...
LEO BUSCAGLIA

If you are writing about baloney, don't try and make it Cornish hen, because that's the worst kind o...
LEO BURNETT

I've learned any fool can write a bad ad, but it takes a real genius to keep his hands off a good on...
LEO BURNETT

Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.
LEO BURNETT

Most of us are umpires at heart; we like to call balls and strikes on somebody else.
LEO AIKMAN

The wise man questions the wisdom of others because he questions his own, the foolish man, because i...
LEO STEIN

If you can't turn yourself into your customer, you probably shouldn't be in the ad writing business ...
LEO BURNETT

Joy can only be real only if people look upon their life as a service, and have a definite object in...
LEO TOLSTOY

In essence we have become addicted to the certainty, sureness or sense of security that our faith pr...
LEO BOOTH

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest c...
LEO BUSCAGLIA

Which is worse? the wolf who cries before eating the lamb or the wolf who does not.
LEO TOLSTOY

When you reach for the stars, you may not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mu...
LEO BURNETT

I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom a...
LEO TOLSTOY

Only when we give joyfully, without hesitation or thought of gain, can we truly know what love mea...
LEO BUSCAGLIA

The wise man questions the wisdom of others because he questions his own, the foolish man, because ...
LEO STEIN

Don't hold to anger, hurt or pain. They steal your energy and keep you from love.
LEO BUSCAGLIA

The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience.
LEO TOLSTOY

How can one be well...when one suffers morally?
LEO TOLSTOY

There are two big forces at work, external and internal. We have very little control over external ...
LEO BUSCAGLIA

I learned that it is the weak who are cruel, and that gentleness is to be expected only from the str...
LEO ROSTEN

The Kingdom of God is within you.. and all beings.
LEO TOLSTOY

There are only five things you can do in baseball: run, throw, catch, hit and hit with power.
LEO DUROCHER

Baseball is like church. Many attend, few understand.
LEO DUROCHER

It seldom happens that a man changes his life through his habitual reasoning. No matter how fully he...
LEO TOLSTOY

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
LEO TOLSTOY

I never cease being dumbfounded by the unbelievable things people believe.
LEO ROSTEN

But every acquisition that is disproportionate to the labor spent on it is dishonest.
LEO TOLSTOY

Is it really possible to tell someone else what one feels?
LEO TOLSTOY

There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth.
LEO TOLSTOY

Humor is the affectionate communication of insight.
LEO ROSTEN

A conservative is one who admires radicals centuries after they're dead.
LEO ROSTEN

I spend some of my time brooding about people who seem addicted to double standards - those who take...
JOHN LEO

I was with my mum in the shops, a ladies boutique or something, and I was asked what I wanted to be ...
LEO VARADKAR

An actor has to be very, very careful, as one of the most wonderful props - and actors love props - ...
MELISSA LEO

I met Roger Ebert at an independent-film awards or something. And he said, 'When I saw you just ...
LEO FITZPATRICK

If you can't turn yourself into your customer, you probably shouldn't be in the ad writing b...
LEO BURNETT

We want consumers to say, 'That's a hell of a product' instead of, 'That's a hel...
LEO BURNETT

The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.
LEO TOLSTOY

When we sit at the table, there is more going on than satisfying hunger. It is sad to think of those...
LEO BUSCAGLIA

All art is political. Yes. Even the stuff that sounds like bubble-gum songs. I think all art is, by nature, intended to motivate society for change, and the only reason change doesn't happen is because within the target population, courage is lacking.

Copied!

Wadada Leo Smith

All art is political. Yes. Even the stuff that sounds like bubble-gum songs. I think all art is, by nature, intended to motivate society for change, and the only reason change doesn't happen is because within the target population, courage is lacking.

Wadada Leo Smith

Share:

Related

More Wadada Leo Smith