Baby, black promoters oppressed me before white promoters ever got hold of me. Don’t talk skin to me.

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

Everybody needs somebody.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

I don’t worry too much about the script, I just ad lib, like Pearl Bailey.

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

I hope to bring people to God with my songs.

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

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

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

This is the place to see the stars – Hollywood Bowl.

Money just draws flies.

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

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

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

Anybody singing the blues is in a deep pit yelling for help.

The mind and the voice by themselves are not sufficient.

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

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

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

Blues are the songs of despair, but gospel songs are the songs of hope.

Without a song, each day would be a century.