Top 100 Ben Harper Quotes
#1. On one occasion, someone asked a famous American musician, Ben Harper, this question: "We've heard you now have a new drummer in your band. Tell me something: is he black?" And Harper replied: "I don't know, I've never asked him.
Mia Couto
#2. It's nonstop Ben Harper in my apartment.
Nikki Reed
#3. The music I love listening to is more of the Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, Dido, Jewel, Nora Jones, Joss Stone, a bit more of that organic live-instrumentation feel.
Tammin Sursok
#4. I'm not going to do the Ben Harper house record or the Ben Harper drum 'n' bass record.
Ben Harper
#5. The upside to smoking is that you get to be social. I was looking for a light when I bumped into Ben Harper's manager. A couple of days later, Ben and I were in the studio.
Beth Orton
#6. I'm a big fan of the Foo Fighters, Ben Harper, Amos Lee, Coldplay, Corinne Bailey Rae and Chris Thile ... to name a few.
Jimi Westbrook
#7. Sometimes I think to talk too much about music almost cheapens it.
Ben Harper
#8. Make sure the fortune that you seek is the fortune that you need.
Ben Harper
#9. There's only one proper way a song should go, but you've got to be patient enough to let them come together time wise. Sometimes it's lightning in a bottle and you got the song. But oftentimes it shows up.
Ben Harper
#10. The spirit is what guides my life, and I'm humbly on my knees in thanks for guidance and direction every day. But God is not something to be preached, it's something to be lived.
Ben Harper
#11. When it comes to partnership, some humans can make their lives alone - it's possible. But creatively, it's more like painting: you can't just use the same colours in every painting. It's just not an option. You can't take the same photograph every time and live with art forms with no differences.
Ben Harper
#12. Some things You have to let be lost Some battles, some battles You have to leave unfought. Then the truth just wastes away In all we dare not say. And in all we can't explain But I faithfully remain.
Ben Harper
#13. These eyes weren't made for crying, this love wasn't made to waste. These arms weren't made for battle, but to share in your embrace.
Ben Harper
#14. What enables me to believe in anything is hope.
Ben Harper
#15. My family owns a music store in Claremont, California, called The Claremont Folk Music Center.
Ben Harper
#16. If you're gonna live, then live it up. If you're gonna give, then give it up. If you're gonna walk the Earth, then walk it proud. If you're gonna say the word, you got to say it loud.
Ben Harper
#17. You can kill a lot of time if you really want to put your mind to it Or leave it all behind and never really have to go through it
Ben Harper
#18. There's no room in my life for religion. Religion is separation and segregation of God. How can you segregate the Almighty?
Ben Harper
#19. Wish there was something that I could say or do, I can resist anything but the temptation from you. But I'd rather walk alone than chase you around, I'd rather fall myself then let you drag me on down.
Ben Harper
#20. I grew up listening to spiritual music, Blind Willie Johnson and folk.
Ben Harper
#21. It just takes a pebble to bring down a good man.
Ben Harper
#22. You look like gold. I've been fooled before, but now I know I've made the mistake in the past. But now I, now I know the difference from gold and brass.
Ben Harper
#23. If you don't like my fire, don't come around cuz I'm gonna burn one down.
Ben Harper
#24. That happens every time I get behind a guitar, regardless of what I'm saying, 'cause music is freedom and being free is the closest I've ever felt to being spiritual.
Ben Harper
#25. It's not easy for a mother and son to sing a duet. You can't just sing about anything.
Ben Harper
#26. My choice is what I choose to do,
And if I'm causing no harm, it shouldn't bother you.
Your choice is who you choose to be,
And if you're causin' no harm, then you're alright with me.
Ben Harper
#27. Every time feels like my first time. And I just find that the process of it feeds into one's own self-obsession.
Ben Harper
#28. We're always moving forward in different places physically and psychologically.
Ben Harper
#29. We've changed our reflections, but inside we're just a child.
Ben Harper
#30. I want to try to not be the child that had to go through too much too young. I want to be who I am now and not who I was then.
Ben Harper
#31. If I fall, I fall. I'll rise up like anybody else.
Ben Harper
#32. The very thing that drives you, can drive you insane Got a head full of thought crimes and a number with no name Got an eleventh hour Jesus and a mouth full of blame A casket lined with silver dollars and a number with no name.
Ben Harper
#33. The music is in the lead here, and a large part of this, I have no idea what I'm doing. I feel a closer bond with the craft of songwriting, stronger than I ever have.
Ben Harper
#34. Every man's actions belong to him.
Ben Harper
#35. People say, "How do you write songs?" I say, "Patience." I may have a track that's hot, but no words. I'll just let it sit for years, because I know they're going to meet. They'll find it.
Ben Harper
#36. But I would never insult the people that love this music and I would never insult the blessing of music in my life and I would never insult myself by playing uninspired music.
Ben Harper
#37. I want to try to be who I am today, not who I was yesterday.
Ben Harper
#38. As long as the songs are strong, I think you can express yourself in any style and have it be soulful and have it be your own voice.
Ben Harper
#39. I write songs and I sing them from the deepest part of my existence and I hope they connect with the deepest part of yours.
Ben Harper
#40. I grew up with the Blind Boys' music. My family owns a music store in Claremont, California, called The Claremont Folk Music Center. I grew up with a heavy diet of gospel, folk, and blues because those are kind of the cornerstones of traditional American music.
Ben Harper
#41. Take my hand when you are worried Take my hand when you're alone Take my hand and let me guide you Take my hand to lead you home.
Ben Harper
#42. The world awakens on the run And will soon be earning With hopes of better days to come It's a morning yearning.
Ben Harper
#43. Life's the longest picture you're ever gonna take.
Ben Harper
#44. It turns out that there is something more magnificent than nature. It's love.
Ben Harper
#45. Right now I'm listening to a lot of different things but I listen to a lot of classical music. Eventually I would like to compose and perform classical.
Ben Harper
#46. It's so hard to do and so easy to say but sometimes you just have to walk away
Ben Harper
#47. There's so much there, there's so much to heal for.
Ben Harper
#48. Every moral has a story, every story has and end. Every battle has its glory, and its consequence.
Ben Harper
#49. When you hear Doc Watson singing Amazing Grace, something else enters the room.
Ben Harper
#50. My head works in music, so there's always music there.
Ben Harper
#51. I refuse to age disgracefully in rock 'n' roll.
Ben Harper
#52. Don't let what you have to heal from blind you to how much there is to heal for.
Ben Harper
#53. You have to do what you believe in.
Ben Harper
#54. Just because you have a hit doesn't mean you're good [at music]. Just means you got a hit.
Ben Harper
#55. Life is short and if you're looking for extension, you had best do well. 'Cause there's good deeds and then there's good intentions. They are as far apart as Heaven and Hell.
Ben Harper
#56. You can't just say I love you, you have to LIVE I love you
Ben Harper
#57. I knew a girl, her name was Truth. She was a terrible liar.
Ben Harper
#58. What started as a whisper
Slowly turned into a scream
Searching for an answer
Where the question is unseen
I don't know where you came from
And I don't know where you've gone
Old friends become old strangers
Between the darkness and the dawn
Ben Harper
#59. As long as someone else controls your history the truth shall remain just a mystery
Ben Harper
#60. There's something in everyone only they know.
Ben Harper
#61. You're living life in real time, man, and we' ve got a good amount of work to do for each other. Hiding is not an option and you're going to step out and you're going to make mistakes.
Ben Harper
#62. As a songwriter, I don't rush. I may sit on lyrics for two years before the music hits.
Ben Harper
#63. You're definitely a different person at different stages in your life.
Ben Harper
#64. They say time will make all this go away. But it's time that's taken my tomorrow, and turned them into yesterday.
Ben Harper
#65. I really feel there's no limitation on what this band can do in the studio or on the stage. That's an empowering feeling - that we can bring a song to life.
Ben Harper
#66. Like a soldier standing long under fire, any change comes as a relief.
Ben Harper
#67. When you have everything, you have everything to lose.
Ben Harper
#68. It will make a weak man mighty. it will make a mighty man fall. It will fill your heart and hands or leave you with nothing at all. It's the eyes for the blind and legs for the lame. It is the love for hate and pride for shame. That's the power of the gospel.
Ben Harper
#69. Of all the states of emotion I've ever been in, music takes me to the strongest state of emotion the quickest, of any other sort of state of mind I've ever been in or been put in by any substance or circumstance, music brings me to an emotional state of being faster than anything I've ever known
Ben Harper
#70. To go through this life and see it through - what it really is - and not be insane or addicted, is a minor miracle for anyone.
Ben Harper
#71. We figured you could download live shows for days, so we decided to go for a cream-of-the-crop approach, but not just take the best vocal or the best performances.
Ben Harper
#72. I refuse to make uninspired music.
Ben Harper
#73. We went for the best overall feel on each song. There are no musical overdubs at all. It's a true live record; it's one of the few true live records out there.
Ben Harper
#74. Her voice rose to a Vincent Price octave. Yes, I'm wandering the earth, seeking revenge on Ben and Jerry for giving me the fat ass and massive coronary. And I give out love advice to the tragically lonely.
Molly Harper
#75. There's no love like a lost love and no pain like a broken heart.
Ben Harper
#76. Love for me is my North Star. It's the highest form of grace. And I love that there's different levels and different ways of showing it, and different representations of it. Whether it's love shown to a stranger, love to a sibling, your child, your parents, your partner.
Ben Harper
#77. So it's not so much that I set out to do something different, it's just that the songs themselves require their own individual voice and attention.
Ben Harper
#78. If you're gonna live, then live it up.
Ben Harper
#79. The only way that you can find any semblance of a rule, or make any semblance of your own rule, is to tear up the rulebook. Throw it out, burn it, throw it away, and make your own rules.
Ben Harper
#80. You can run away from home But you can't run away from your pain I sit here alone There's always someone else to blame.
Ben Harper
#81. All that we can't say is all we need to hear.
Ben Harper
#82. Every single time I step into the studio, I say, 'Can I still do this? Do I still have it? Have I ever had it?' I suppose there's a good amount of self-loathing that goes into any form of artisanship.
Ben Harper
#83. Could've sworn I heard you say Amen this morning, showing some kind of sign that you believe. Did it fall from your tongue without warning? Or just another trick to fall from your sleeve?
Ben Harper
#84. Sometimes I may be totally arrogant, sometimes I may totally be the most humble guy you've ever met, sometimes I may be in between. But that's life. Who isn't like that? What's the big deal if I had an arrogant moment.
Ben Harper
#85. Let us burn one from end to end, and pass it over to me my friend ...
Ben Harper
#86. If you don't like my fire, then don't come around. Cause I'm gonna burn one down.
Ben Harper
#87. I love being on the road, I love playing.
Ben Harper
#89. The Blind Boys are truly the deepest well of American musical heritage you can discover.
Ben Harper
#90. Forever always seems to be around when it begins, but forever never seems to be around when it ends
Ben Harper
#91. I'm really looking forward to, not more of the same, but a continual growth.
Ben Harper
#92. The advice I have for new artists is this - write great songs and play them live as often as possible. Get residencies all over town and crush it.
Ben Harper
#93. If interviews are just interviews or if music is just music, why are we even doing it? You only get so many hours in a lifetime, man.
Ben Harper
#94. My band is the best band in the world, period. So, I insist on every song being better then it is on the record. So by the end of the tour, we have to be playing the song better then how it's recorded.
Ben Harper
#95. Music is the last true voice of the human spirit. It can go beyond language, beyond age, and beyond color straight to the mind and heart of all people.
Ben Harper
#96. If I'm inspired and music inspires me, then I will continue to play it.
Ben Harper
#97. I can't not put myself in the shoes of every person I pass.
Ben Harper
#98. People who try to define their spirituality sometimes are annoying, 'cause the spirit is something you feel and let guide you and humbly respect.
Ben Harper
#99. When it comes to writers and poets, for me it's Vinicius de Moraes. He's one of the greatest lyricists ever.
Ben Harper
#100. I wish you were here so we could walk and talk in the soft rain.
Ben Harper
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