Pete Seeger

“I am not going to answer any questions as to my association, my philosophical or religious beliefs or my political beliefs, or how I voted in any election, or any of these private affairs.”

“I live in the country, so I get a fair amount of exercise. We heat our house with wood, so I split wood. We also live on a steep hill, and I have to rake and put in cross-stitches to keep the road from washing out when there's a big rain.”

“According to my definition of God, I'm not an atheist. Because I think God is everything. Whenever I open my eyes, I'm looking at God. Whenever I'm listening to something, I'm listening to God.”

“If there's something wrong, speak up!”

“Some of my ancestors were religious dissenters who came to America over three hundred years ago. Others were abolitionists in New England in the eighteen forties and fifties.”

“I fought for peace in the fifties.”

“I'm still a communist in the sense that I don't believe the world will survive with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer - I think that the pressures will get so tremendous that the social contract will just come apart.”

“Singing with children in the schools has been the most rewarding experience of my life.”

“I feel that my whole life is a contribution.”

“When you play the 12-string guitar, you spend half your life tuning the instrument and the other half playing it out of tune.”

“Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get if you don't.”

“Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't.”

“I came from an intellectual family. Most were doctors, preachers, teachers, businessmen. My grandfather was a small businessman. His father was an abolitionist doctor, and his father was an immigrant from Germany.”

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

“Historically, I believe I was correct in refusing to answer their questions.”

“I love my country very dearly, and I greatly resent the implication that some of the places that I have sung and some of the people that I have known, and some of my opinions, whether they are religious or philosophical, make me less of an American.”

“If I've got a talent, it's for picking the right song at the right time for the right audience. And I can always get people to sing with me.”

“I want to turn the clock back to when people lived in small villages and took care of each other.”

“I came along and was a teenager in the Depression, and nobody had jobs. So I went out hitchhiking, when I met a man named Woody Guthrie. He was the single biggest part of my education.”

“I have sung in hobo jungles, and I have sung for the Rockefellers, and I am proud that I have never refused to sing for anybody.”