Time is important to me because I want to sing long enough to leave a message. I’m used to singing in churches where nobody would dare stop me until the Lord arrives! — Mahalia Jackson

I hope to bring people to God with my songs. — Mahalia Jackson

If you want me to sing this Christmas song with the feeling and the meaning, you better see if you can locate that check. — Mahalia Jackson

Gospel music in those days of the early 1930s was really taking wing. It was the kind of music colored people had left behind them down South and they liked it because it was just like a letter from home. — Mahalia Jackson

I close my eyes when I sing so I can feel the song better. — Mahalia Jackson

The old Devil gets mad when you’re trying to do good. Pray that God will move the stumbling blocks. — Mahalia Jackson

You’re blessed if you have the strength to work. — Mahalia Jackson

Blues are the songs of despair, but gospel songs are the songs of hope. — Mahalia Jackson

One thing about playing the real jazz is that you can’t count it. — Mahalia Jackson

Faith and prayer are the vitamins of the soul; man cannot live in health without them. — Mahalia Jackson

I sing God’s music because it makes me feel free. It gives me hope. With the blues, when you finish, you still have the blues. — Mahalia Jackson

If you believe in God, He will open the windows of heaven and pour blessings upon you. — Mahalia Jackson

If you don’t like Louis Armstrong, you don’t know how to love. — Mahalia Jackson

Do you know most of the Jewish songs have the same trend of sadness as Negro spirituals? — Mahalia Jackson

Blues are the songs of despair. — Mahalia Jackson

Sometimes you ask God for something and you don’t know what you’re asking. — Mahalia Jackson

This is the place to see the stars–Hollywood Bowl. — Mahalia Jackson

Gospel songs are the songs of hope. When you sing gospel you have the feeling there is a cure for what’s wrong, but when you are through with the blues, you’ve got nothing to rest on. — Mahalia Jackson

Someday the sun is going to shine down on me in some faraway place. — Mahalia Jackson

They thought I was a success as soon as I started paying the bills. — Mahalia Jackson

When you are through with the blues, you’ve got nothing to rest on. — Mahalia Jackson

The trouble with records is that they’re too short. — Mahalia Jackson

The mind and the voice by themselves are not sufficient. — Mahalia Jackson

My hands, my feet, I throw my whole body to say all that is within me. — Mahalia Jackson

It is easy to be independent when you’ve got money. But to be independent when you haven’t got a thing, that’s the Lord’s test. — Mahalia Jackson

God can make you anything you want to be, but you have to put everything in his hands. — Mahalia Jackson

Money just draws flies. — Mahalia Jackson

Anybody that sings the blues is in a deep pit, yelling for help. — Mahalia Jackson

I’ll come to any benefit if I see SCLC get all the money. — Mahalia Jackson

Put your mind on the gospel. And remember–there’s one God for all. — Mahalia Jackson

The Lord doesn’t like us to be dead. Be alive. Sometimes I dance to the glory of the Lord, because He said so. — Mahalia Jackson

How can you sing of amazing grace and all God’s wonders without using your hands? — Mahalia Jackson

Gospel music rhythms are not African in origin, although I know that’s what the jazz experts say. — Mahalia Jackson

Without a song, each day would be a century. — Mahalia Jackson

When you sing gospel you have a feeling there is a cure for what’s wrong. — Mahalia Jackson