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" My success is not due to any personal superiority over other people. "

John Philip Sousa

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" I still feel the impulse to give young writers a hearing, and I believe I have played more unpublished compositions than any other band leader in the country. "

John Philip Sousa

" Any composer who is gloriously conscious that he is a composer must believe that he receives his inspiration from a source higher than himself. "

John Philip Sousa

" There is much modern music that is better adapted to a wind combination than to a string, although for obvious reasons originally scored for an orchestra. If in such cases the interpretation is equal to the composition the balance of a wind combination is more satisfying. "

John Philip Sousa

" I think that the quality of all bands is steadily improving and it is a pleasant thought to me that perhaps the efforts of Sousa's Band have quickened that interest and improved that quality. "

John Philip Sousa

" I had found English audiences highly satisfactory. They are the best listeners in the world. Perhaps the music-lovers of some of our larger cities equal the English, but I do not believe they can be surpassed in that respect. "

John Philip Sousa

" Anybody can write music of a sort. But touching the public heart is quite another thing. "

John Philip Sousa

" Governmental aid is a drawback rather than an assistance, as, although it may facilitate in the routine of artistic production, it is an impediment to the development of true artistic genius. "

John Philip Sousa

" My religion lies in my composition. "

John Philip Sousa

" Remember always that the composer's pen is still mightier than the bow of the violinist; in you lie all the possibilities of the creation of beauty. "

John Philip Sousa

" To the average mind popular music would mean compositions vulgarly conceived and commonplace in their treatment. That is absolutely false. "

John Philip Sousa

" I can almost always write music; at any hour of the twenty-four, if I put pencil to paper, music comes. "

John Philip Sousa

" American teachers have one indisputable advantage over foreign ones; they understand the American temperament and can judge its unevenness, its lights and its shadows. "

John Philip Sousa

" The office of President is a great one; to every true American it seems the greatest on earth. And to me, as I was engaged in weaving a background of music for the pageantry of it, there came a deeper realization of the effect of that office on the man. "

John Philip Sousa

" Grand opera is the most powerful of stage appeals and that almost entirely through the beauty of music. "

John Philip Sousa

" Jazz will endure just as long people hear it through their feet instead of their brains. "

John Philip Sousa

" America can well expect to develop a goodly amount of composers for she has a goodly number of people. "

John Philip Sousa

" No nation as young as America can be expected to become immediately a power in the arts. "

John Philip Sousa

" Composers are the only people who can hear good music above bad sounds. "

John Philip Sousa

" The movements which I make I cannot possibly repress because, at the time, I am actually the idea I am interpreting, and naturally I picture my players and auditors as in accord with me. I know, of course, that my mannerisms have been widely discussed. "

John Philip Sousa

" I am happy now, to recall that I was not only his son but his companion, and whenever there was a hunting expedition or any other pleasure, I was always with him. "

John Philip Sousa

" From childhood I was passionately fond of music and wanted to be a musician. I have no recollection of any real desire ever to be anything else. "

John Philip Sousa

" Is it not the business of the conductor to convey to the public in its dramatic form the central idea of a composition; and how can he convey that idea successfully if he does not enter heart and soul into the life of the music and the tale it unfolds? "

John Philip Sousa

" There is one thing that freezes a musician more than the deadliest physical cold, and that is the spiritual chill of an unresponsive audience! "

John Philip Sousa

" I have always believed that 98% of a student's progress is due to his own efforts, and 2% to his teacher. "

John Philip Sousa

" Sincere composers believe in God. "

John Philip Sousa

" The average music-lover hears only the production under prevailing conditions. "

John Philip Sousa