Quotations

"Don’t just set out to do a good job. Set out to do such a good job that the living, the dead or the unborn couldn’t do it any better.
If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well."

— Martin Luther King, Jr., American minster, born 1929

"Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend."

— Martin Luther King, Jr., American minster, born 1929

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

— Martin Luther King, Jr., American minster, born 1929

"The time is always right to do what is right."

— Martin Luther King, Jr., American minster, born 1929

"A journalist once asked Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "how do you manage to accomplish all that you do during the course of a day?" I give my first hour to God," he said, "and God gives me the rest."

— Martin Luther King, Jr., American minster, born 1929

"If you want to read about love and marriage, you've got to buy two separate books."

— Alan King, American comedian, born 1927

"The other day my house caught fire. My lawyer said, "Shouldn't be a problem. What kind of coverage do you have?" I said, "Fire and theft." The lawyer frowned. Uh oh. Wrong kind. Should be fire OR theft."

— Alan King, American comedian, born 1927

"Playing guitar is like telling the truth."

— B.B. King, American blues musician, born 1925

"God made Blues right after he made woman."

— B.B. King, American blues musician, born 1925

"Notes are expensive. Spend them wisely."

— B.B. King, American blues musician, born 1925

"Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open."

— Stephen King, American author, born 1947

"Aliveness is energy. It’s the juice, the vitality, and the passion that wakes up our cells every morning. It’s what makes us want to dance. It’s the energy that moves a relationship from the status quo to something grander and much more expansive, something that makes our hearts beat faster, our minds and our eyes open wider, than ever before. Everything is of interest to a person who is truly alive, whether it’s a challenge, a loving moment, a bucket of grief, or a glimpse of beauty."

— Daphne Rose Kingma, American therapist, born 1942

"I think the actor has a tribal role as the archetypal story teller. I think there was a time when the storyteller, the priest, the healer, were all one person in one body. That person used to weave stories at night around a small fire to keep the tribe from being terrified that sun had gone down."

— Ben Kingsley, English actor, born 1943

"I love storytelling. If you strip all the bits away, what you'll find at the center is a storyteller. As I warm to my career and love it more, I have a sense that storytelling is healing, in many ways. You can reach an audience and heal, and by heal, I mean entertain and provoke. It's a wonderful life."

— Ben Kingsley, English actor, born 1943