The Best Duke Ellington quotes

Jazz is a good barometer of freedom. — Duke Ellington

Jazz today, as always in the past, is a matter of thoughtful creation, not mere unaided instinct. — Duke Ellington

By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn’t want your daughter to associate with. — Duke Ellington

Somehow I suspect that if Shakespeare were alive today, he might be a jazz fan himself. — Duke Ellington

Jazz is the only unhampered, unhindered expression of complete freedom yet produced in this country. — Duke Ellington

If anybody was Mr. Jazz it was Louis Armstrong. He was the epitome of jazz and always will be. He is what I call an American standard, an American original. — Duke Ellington

It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing. — Duke Ellington

Love is supreme and unconditional. Like is nice, but limited. — Duke Ellington

Love is indescribable and unconditional. I could tell you a thousand things that it is not, but not one that it is. Either you have it or you haven’t; there’s no proof of it. — Duke Ellington

Selfishness can be a virtue. Selfishness is essential to survival, and without survival we cannot protect those whom we love more than ourselves. — Duke Ellington

What does music mean to you? What would you do without music? — Duke Ellington

New music? Hell, there’s been no new music since Stravinsky. — Duke Ellington

There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind. — Duke Ellington

You have to stop listening in categories. The music is either good or it’s bad. — Duke Ellington

Music is the tonal reflection of beauty. — Duke Ellington

There is hardly any money interest in art, and music will be there when money is gone. — Duke Ellington

The problem of expressing the contributions that Benny Carter has made to popular music is so tremendous it completely fazes me, so extraordinary a musician is he. — Duke Ellington

Music, of course, is what I hear and something that I more or less live by. It’s not an occupation or profession, it’s a compulsion. — Duke Ellington

You can’t write music right unless you know how the man that’ll play it plays poker. — Duke Ellington

Music is my mistress and she plays second fiddle to no one. — Duke Ellington

I don’t need time. What I need is a deadline! — Duke Ellington

There are two kinds of worries–those you can do something about and those you can’t. Don’t spend any time on the latter. — Duke Ellington

I never had much interest in the piano until I realized that every time I played, a girl would appear on the piano bench to my left and another to my right. — Duke Ellington

Yet, every time God’s children have thrown away fear in pursuit of honesty–trying to communicate themselves, understood or not, miracles have happened. — Duke Ellington

Without a deadline, baby, I wouldn’t do nothing. — Duke Ellington

There are 2 rules in life: Number 1–Never quit Number2–Never forget rule number 1. — Duke Ellington

A problem is A chAnce for you to do your best. — Duke Ellington

A musical profit outweighs a financial loss. — Duke Ellington

I don’t believe in categories of any kind, and when you speak of problems between blacks and whites in the U.S.A. you are referring to categories again. — Duke Ellington

Be a number one yourself. And not a number two somebody else. — Duke Ellington

Create, and be true to yourself, and depend only on your own good taste. — Duke Ellington