Song Quotes by Pete Seeger

RULERS should be careful about what songs are allowed to be sung.

— Pete Seeger

All songwriters are links in a chain.

— Pete Seeger

A good song reminds us what we're fighting for.

— Pete Seeger

Songs won't save the planet, but neither will books or speeches.

— Pete Seeger

Music has always had the ability to comfort and inspire.

— Pete Seeger

Honest songs aren't written for money.

— Pete Seeger

I'd really rather put songs on people's lips than in their ears.

— Pete Seeger

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

— Pete Seeger

Looking back, I think I tried to be too eclectic. Sometimes I'd sing thirty songs, and fifteen of them were not in…

— Pete Seeger

I keep reminding people that an editorial in rhyme is not a song. A good song makes you laugh, it makes you…

— Pete Seeger

Songs wont save the planet, but neither will books or speeches. Songs are sneaky things; they can slip across borders.

— Pete Seeger

My mother was a very good violinist; my father was a musicologist and spent most of his life in academia.

— Pete Seeger

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

— Pete Seeger

Music does affect your opinions. Plato is supposed to have said "It's very dangerous to allow the wrong kind of music into…

— Pete Seeger

If I've got a talent, it's for picking the right song at the right time for the right audience. And I can…

— Pete Seeger

I learned by transcribing songs out of the Library of Congress collection in Washington where I was working. I got a job…

— Pete Seeger

I was working for Alan Lomax in the Library of Congress folk song archive, and starting to realize what a wealth of…

— Pete Seeger

There is a big, beautiful world that could be destroyed by selfishness and foolishness. We musicians have it without power to save…

— Pete Seeger

There's a story behind every old ballad or work song or nonsense song that I ever knew. Sometimes it's a fascinating story.…

— Pete Seeger

In the largest sense, every work of art is protest... A lullaby is a propaganda song and any three-year-old knows it... A…

— Pete Seeger

The danger with the internet is that you don't need to think about music, you just search for it and you find…

— Pete Seeger

At the audition, your assignment is to find something new in the song. Something you've never noticed before. A breath carried over,…

— Pete Seeger

Now somebody will ask me, Pete, how can you prove these songs really make a difference? And I have to confess I…

— Pete Seeger

My father urged Alan [Lomax] not to repeat the mistakes of the European folklorists who, a century ago, had collected these peasant…

— Pete Seeger

There are many people writing songs. That is absolutely wonderful. Who knows, there may be some kid in diapers and he or…

— Pete Seeger

In the United States, many people said you can't have folk music in the United States because you don't have any peasant…

— Pete Seeger

My mother wanted me to learn how to read music. She'd given fiddles to my two older brothers, but they'd rebelled. I…

— Pete Seeger

Now any person who plays an acoustic guitar standing up on stage with a microphone is a folk singer. Some grandmother with…

— Pete Seeger

He [Alan Lomax] started right off trying to find people who could introduce folk songs to city people. He found a young…

— Pete Seeger

I always knew that sooner or later there would come somebody like Woody Guthrie who could make a great song every week.…

— Pete Seeger

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

— Pete Seeger

I decline to discuss, under compulsion, where I have sung, and who has sung my songs, and who else has sung with…

— Pete Seeger

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

— Pete Seeger

A song is like a picture of a bird in flight; the bird was moving before the picture was taken, and no…

— Pete Seeger

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

— Pete Seeger

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

— Pete Seeger

I write a song because I want to. I think the moment you start writing it to make money, you're starting to…

— Pete Seeger

Songwriters can’t explain. You get an idea and you don’t know where it’s come from. And if you’re lucky, you have a…

— Pete Seeger

A good song can only do good, and I am proud of the songs I have sung. I hope to be able…

— Pete Seeger

Alan Lomax is the person who I think should be given major credit for what has been called the "Folk Song Revival."…

— Pete Seeger