133 Quotes by 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.

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.

You’ve got to find a way of saying it without saying it.

Critics have their purposes, and they’re supposed to do what they do, but sometimes they get a little carried away with what they think someone should have done, rather than concerning themselves with what they did.

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.

Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn’t want me to be too famous too young.

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

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

Roaming through the jungle of “Ohs” and “Ahs” searching for a more agreeable noise, I live a life of primitivity with the mind of a child and an unquenchable thirst for sharps and flats.