Don Cornelius Quotes

#1. One motivation for the 'Soul Train' awards was the grumbling that all of us in the industry have heard about the way black music tends to be viewed as a secondary phenomenon by the other awards shows.

Don Cornelius

#2. Black music is too big and too powerful not to have its own awards show.

Don Cornelius

#3. I don't care half so much about making money as I do about making my point, and coming out ahead.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

#4. When I have a job to do, time means nothing. I lose patience with people who work on a clock.

Don Cornelius

#5. I was never exposed to a great deal of racism, but the Chicago I grew up in was very, very segregated.

Don Cornelius

#6. Love, peace and soul.

Don Cornelius

#7. I felt that it was my mission to see to it that black talent had an opportunity to get national television exposure.

Don Cornelius

#8. 'Soul Train' was developed as a radio show on television. It was the radio show that I always wanted and never had.

Don Cornelius

#9. I wear clothes and sell products and ideas.

Edie Campbell

#10. I am just convinced that people want to see people on TV who are more like themselves.

Don Cornelius

#11. People who dance well, dress well, are well groomed and know how to behave seem to know others who dance, dress and behave well.

Don Cornelius

#12. MTV essentially killed 'American Bandstand' and 'Solid Gold,' because music videos are an easier way for pop artists to gain television exposure.

Don Cornelius

#13. The '70s and '80s were just the period during which the best soul music was created and the best records were done.

Don Cornelius

#14. Nobody really invents anything that hasn't been done before.

Don Cornelius

#15. The spirit of Plato dies hard. We have been unable to escape the philosophical tradition that what we can see and measure in the world is merely the superficial and imperfect representation of an underlying reality.

Stephen Jay Gould

#16. Who's more important than Diana Ross?

Don Cornelius

#17. Life is tough. If you're stupid, it's even tougher.

Dick Burleson

#18. When you come up with a good idea, you don't have to do a whole lot. The idea does it for you.

Don Cornelius

#19. It's hard to live up to The Beatles. When Wings toured, they got slated. Even Dad found it hard living up to The Beatles. I started out playing under an alias because I wanted to start quietly.

James McCartney

#20. I had difficulty working for other people.

Don Cornelius

#21. I, sir, I just like to work. I'm humble.

Bruce McCulloch

#22. I figured as long as the music stayed hot and important and good, that there would always be a reason for 'Soul Train.'

Don Cornelius

#23. We usually say of ancient persons, that they have already one foot in the grave, and the rest of their life is nothing else but the bringing of these feet together.

John Pearson

#24. There were three great child singing stars: Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Jackie Washington.

Don Cornelius

#25. Patience is like good motor oil. It doesn't remove all the contaminants. It just puts them into suspension so they don't get into your works and seize them up. Patient people have, so to speak, a large crankcase. They can put a lot of irritants into suspension.

Cornelius Plantinga

#26. All I really wanted was to be a full-time disc jockey.

Don Cornelius

#27. I always felt a love for music, but I never got my nerve up enough to try a musical instrument in school.

Don Cornelius

#28. It's always a pleasure to find something that matters.

Don Cornelius

#29. What I love about drafts is the experimental nature of them. The draft is what you know about writing a poem running up against what you don't know about the subject. If you're lucky, you get to surprise yourself.

Cornelius Eady

#30. You know what would help the instruction form? Verbs! Verbs would be nice! Because they help you get to the end of a thought!

Lewis Black

#31. The 'Soul Train' legacy and brand are of the utmost importance to me and to 'Soul Train's' millions of fans. After years of offers, I feel the time is now finally right to pass the torch.

Don Cornelius

#32. The White House and the media need one another in order to be successful in their jobs. The White House depends on the media to make its case to the public; the media need the White House to fill their airtime and news columns.

Eric Alterman

#33. Captain?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you think it was destiny that brought us together?"
He squinted and, after a thoughtful moment, shook his head. "No. I'm pretty sure it was Cinder.

Marissa Meyer

#34. There was no match for Barry White. His music is just going to live forever. It's not limited to disco or soul or hip-hop or anything.

Don Cornelius

#35. Blacks on prime-time TV are only portrayed as comedians - and often in no better a light than 'Amos & Andy.'

Don Cornelius

#36. Almost all of what I learned about mounting and hosting a dance show I learned from Dick Clark.

Don Cornelius

#37. Soul music as we've always known it hasn't changed. There are different players now with different attitudes, but there is nothing new being done musically.

Don Cornelius

#38. My father worked real hard. I admired him. My father taught me you needed to work with your brain and not your back. I've made that a passion.

Don Cornelius