Louis Armstrong Quotes

Enjoy the top 79 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Louis Armstrong.

“Musicians dont retire; they stop when theres no more music in them.”
— Louis Armstrong —

If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know.

— Louis Armstrong

“Seems to me it ain't the world that's so bad but what we're doing to it, and all I'm saying is: see what a wonderful world it would be if only we'd give it a chance. Love, baby - love. That's the secret.”

— Louis Armstrong

“If you have to ask what jazz is you will never know. Louis Armstrong”

— Louis Armstrong

The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Things like old folks singing in the moonlight in the back yard on a hot night or something said long ago.

— Louis Armstrong

The Bright Blessed Day, the Dark Sacred Night

— Louis Armstrong

“Man, if you have to ask what it [jazz] is, you'll never know.”

— Louis Armstrong

“What a wonderful world.”

— Louis Armstrong

“Musicians don't retire; they stop when there's no more music in them.”

— Louis Armstrong

“There is two kinds of music, the good, and the bad. I play the good kind.”

— Louis Armstrong

“You blows who you is.”

— Louis Armstrong

“To jazz, or not to jazz, there is no question!”

— Louis Armstrong

“Making money ain't nothing exciting to me. You might be able to buy a little better booze than the wino on the corner. But you get sick just like the next cat and when you die you're just as graveyard dead as he is.”

— Louis Armstrong

You got to love to be able to play

— Louis Armstrong

“If I don't practice for a day, I know it. If I don't practice for two days, the critics know it. And if I don't practice for three days, the public knows it.”

— Louis Armstrong

“I got a simple rule about everybody. If you don't treat me right - shame on you.”

— Louis Armstrong

“My whole life, my whole soul, my whole spirit is to blow that horn.”

— Louis Armstrong

When I go to the Gate, I'll play a duet with Gabriel. Yeah, we'll play 'Sleepy Time Down South' and 'Hello, Dolly!.' Then he can blow a couple that he's been playing up there all the time.

— Louis Armstrong

“Musicians in my day had nicknames. My name was "Satchel Mouth," like a doctor's satchel. When I went to England this fellow was strictly English, and he was editor of the newspaper there. He shook my hand after I got off the train and said, "Hello, Satchmo." So right away my trombone player said, "Mmm, the man thinks you have mo' mouth than Satchel Mouth." So I was stuck with it, and it turned out all right.”

— Louis Armstrong

“All them weird chords which don't mean a thing ... you got no melody to remember, and no beat to dance to”

— Louis Armstrong

“Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans. When that's where you left your heart. The moonlight on the bayou a creole tune that fills the air. I dream about magnolias in bloom and I'm wishin' I was there.”

— Louis Armstrong

You can't take it for granted. Even if we have two, three days off I still have to blow that horn a few hours to keep up the chops. I mean I've been playing 50 years, and that's what I've been doing in order to keep in that groove there.

— Louis Armstrong

“Never play anything the same way twice.”

— Louis Armstrong

“Never play a thing the same way twice.”

— Louis Armstrong

There's only two ways to sum up music; either it's good or it's bad. If it's good you don't mess about it, you just enjoy it.

— Louis Armstrong

“If it hadn't been for Jazz, there wouldn't be no rock and roll.”

— Louis Armstrong

A lot of the musicians asked me if when I hit my high-Cs on the records I had a clarinet take the notes. Some [thought] I had invented some kind of gadget so I could play high register. They weren't satisfied until they handed me a trumpet that they had with them and had me swing it. Then they cheered.

— Louis Armstrong

“There is no such thing as 'on the way out' as long as you are still doing something interesting and good; you're in the business because you're breathing.”

— Louis Armstrong

“The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky Are also on the faces of people goin' by I see friends shaking hands saying, "How do you do" They're really saying "I love you." I hear babies cry, I watch then grow They'll learn much more than I'll ever know; And I think to myself, What a wonderful world; Yes, I think to myself, What a wonderful world. Oh yeah!”

— Louis Armstrong

“Unless you know what it is I ain't never going to be able to explain it to you.”

— Louis Armstrong

I spent nine days in the Downtown Los Angeles City Jail. The judge gave me a suspended sentence and I went to work that night - wailed just like nothing happened. What strucked me funny though - I laughed real loud when several movie stars came up to the bandstand while we played a dance set and told me, when they heard about me getting caught with marijuana, they thought marijuana was a chick. Woo boy - that really fractured me!

— Louis Armstrong

“It's getting almost so bad a colored man hasn't got any country.”

— Louis Armstrong

“The Brick House was one of the toughest joints I ever played in ... Guys would drink and fight one another like circle saws. Bottles would come flying over the bandstand like crazy and there was lots of plain common shooting and cutting. But somehow all that jive didn't faze me at all. I was so happy to have some place to blow my horn.”

— Louis Armstrong

“I see trees of green, red roses too. I see them bloom for me and you. And I think to myself what a wonderful world. I see skies of blue and clouds of white. The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night. And I think to myself what a wonderful world”

— Louis Armstrong

“Not too slow, not too fast. Kind of like half-fast.”

— Louis Armstrong

I'm a spade, you're an ofay. Let's play.

— Louis Armstrong

Red beans and ricely yours.