Quotes from Pete Seeger

I am saying voluntarily that I have sung for almost every religious group in the country, from Jewish and Catholic, and Presbyterian and Holy Rollers and Revival Churches, and I do this voluntarily.

I am not going to answer any questions as to my association, my philosophical or religious beliefs or my political beliefs, or how I voted in any election, or any of these private affairs.

I love my country very dearly, and I greatly resent the implication that some of the places that I have sung and some of the people that I have known, and some of my opinions, whether they are religious or philosophical, make me less of an American.

I decline to discuss, under compulsion, where I have sung, and who has sung my songs, and who else has sung with me, and the people I have known.

Again, I say I will be glad to tell what songs I have ever sung, because singing is my business.

I have sung in hobo jungles, and I have sung for the Rockefellers, and I am proud that I have never refused to sing for anybody.

But I decline to say who has ever listened to them, who has written them, or other people who have sung them.

I dreamed I saw a mighty room, the room was filled with men. And the paper they were signing said they'd never fight again.

Edison failed ten thousand times before he perfected the modern electric lamp. The average man would have quit at the first failure. That's why there are so many average men and only one Edison.

I came along and was a teenager in the Depression, and nobody had jobs. So I went out hitchhiking, when I met a man named Woody Guthrie. He was the single biggest part of my education.

I get up each morning, gather my wits, pick up the paper and read the obits. If I'm not there, I know I'm not dead, so I eat a good breakfast and go back to bed.

My mother gave me a ukulele at age eight, and I sang the popular tunes of the day.

My mother playing the violin and my father and grandfather playing the piano, classical stuff.

Shh. Listen to the sounds that surround you. Notice the pitches, the volume, the timbre, the many lines of counterpoint. As light taught Monet to paint, the earth may be teaching you music.

Songs are funny things. They can slip across borders. Proliferate in prisons. Penetrate hard shells. I always believed that the right song at the right moment could change history.

I think folk music helps reinforce your sense of history. An old song makes you think of times gone by.

My job, is to show folks there's a lot of good music in this world, and if used right it may help to save the planet.

And this is the origin of pop music: it's a professional music which draws upon both folk music and fine arts music as well.

I still call myself a communist, because communism is no more what Russia made of it than Christianity is what the churches make of it.

According to my definition of God, I'm not an atheist. Because I think God is everything. Whenever I open my eyes I'm looking at God. Whenever I'm listening to something I'm listening to God.

Throughout history the leaders of the countries have been very particular about what songs should be sung. We know the power of songs.

The world will be saved by people fighting for their homes.

Hope that there are many, many small leaders.

The world would never amount to a hill of beans if people didn't use their imaginations to think of the impossible.