Quotes

One can find many quotes on the subject of music from famous artists, musicians, scientists, world leaders, etc. However, there are also many quotes that music teachers pass on to their students that were once learned from their music teachers of the past. These are some of the quotes that I find myself using with students that I believe help students to realize their full potential.

The first set of quotes were used by Mr. George Parks, the late director of the UMass Minuteman Marching Band who was an inspiration to thousands of students and educators from around the country.

1. Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure…then to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much…because they live in a grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. Theodor Roosevelt

2. Our chief want in life is someone who will make us do what we can. Ralph Waldo Emerson

3. Dedicate yourself to being someone who cares.

4. If you fail to plan, plan to fail.

5. Raise your left hand. Now raise it another inch. That’s what’s wrong with your life!

6. The essential condition of everything you do must be choice, love, and passion.

7. Never let someone else tell you not to believe in your dreams.

8. Positive thinking is everything. What you think is what you do.

9. You will move in the direction you are thinking.

10. It is never too late to be what you might have become.

11. Make sure you show support for others before others show support for you.

12. Life is participation. It is not a spectator sport. Every single moment we get to exist is our own private superbowl.

13. Being a leader is sometimes doing the thing that is not precisely the thing you like to do most.

14. And the only measure of your words and your deeds, is the love you leave behind when your done. Rev. Fred Small

15. Close your eyes…I want you to go back to that very first week that you went into that bandroom…See yourself walking around that room, taking a look, oohh there’s some people. How many of you found somebody. How many saw somebody that you miss. How many saw some people you can’t imagine how the band would survive without them. How many are wondering who’s left to make band special because all special people are gone. There’s nobody left to make band special. How is band going to be special, but you have to understand there is a whole new crop of people coming in and they don’t know those people but they know you. The people who now make band special are in this room. That’s your job now. Close your eyes and think of the people that made band special for you…and they will close their eyes and they’ll see you, and they’ll see you…and they’ll never forget you…you have the best opportunity of anybody in your school to have a permanent impact on other people’s lives, and they will never forget you.