I collect records. And cats. I don’t have any cats right now. But if I’m taking a walk and I see a cat, I’m happy.

It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.

I used to wonder if it was God’s plan that I should be alone for so much of my life. But I found peace. I found happiness within people and the world.

I think music is something that can, and should, be used to get you into different things because eventually what goes up must come down – we’re not going to be the number one group in the world forever – so you have to have something else to fall back on.

The jazz I love is sweet and pure with raw elements, which is exactly what the good hip-hop is doing now.

We deem those happy who from the experience of life have learnt to bear its ills without being overcome by them.

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.

The prospect of music being detachable from time and place meant that one could start to think of music as a part of one’s furniture.

One of the interesting things about having little musical knowledge is that you generate surprising results sometimes; you move to places you wouldn’t if you knew better.

Happiness is a hard master, particularly other people’s happiness.

I listen to my old records and I think, ‚How did I ever get on the radio?‘

I set records that will never be equaled. In fact, I hope 90% of them don’t even get printed.

Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are God. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are God.

I didn’t think it was special to be able to sing.

Let a man get up and say, Behold, this is the truth, and instantly I perceive a sandy cat filching a piece of fish in the background. Look, you have forgotten the cat, I say.

Kanye West is my favorite artist.

‚Evil men have no songs.‘ How is it that the Russians have songs?

Every bad situation is a blues song waiting to happen.

If I’d had good discipline, I might have gone into music.

There’s a reason why the Foo Fighters don’t blast out Nirvana songs every night: because we have a lot of respect for them. You know, that’s hallowed ground. We have to be careful. We have to tread lightly. We have talked about it before, but the opportunity hasn’t really come up, or it just hasn’t felt right.

I sing seriously to my mom on the phone. To put her to sleep, I have to sing ‚Maria‘ from West Side Story. When I hear her snoring, I hang up.

Music is the melody whose text is the world.

I’ve made sure that in any situation and with any record label, I’m allowed to write my own music.

If someone decides they’re not going to be happy, it’s not your problem. You don’t have to spend your time and energy trying to cheer up someone who has already decided to stay in a bad mood. Believe it or not, you can actually hurt people by playing into their self-pity.

I’ve always felt music is the only way to give an instantaneous moment the feel of slow motion. To romanticise it and glorify it and give it a soundtrack and a rhythm.

I just love Bowie. I think he’s the ultimate inventor.

Music is really driving my whole life.

I decided to pursue music, so I dropped out of school and I told my parents I didn’t want any money from them. I got three jobs and I just hit the ground running.

The sound and music are 50% of the entertainment in a movie.

Thank God, I never was cheerful. I come from the happy stock of the Mathers, who, as you remember, passed sweet mornings reflecting on the goodness of God and the damnation of infants.

If you play an instrument, it makes you a better singer. The more you play, the better you sing, the more you sing, the better you play.

There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.

I always use the same guitar; I got this guitar years and years ago for nine pounds. It’s still got the same strings on it.

He who is overly attached to his family members experiences fear and sorrow, for the root of all grief is attachment. Thus one should discard attachment to be happy.

The happiness of this life depends less on what befalls you than the way in which you take it.

I don’t think I’d ever make an album of just covers because I love writing my own music.

Happy is he who still loves something he loved in the nursery: He has not been broken in two by time; he is not two men, but one, and he has saved not only his soul but his life.

The only time my records are going to be broken is by my own spawn. I’m going be training that child out the womb.

Love is when the other person’s happiness is more important than your own.

Some people are making music just for numbers and views.

I’d love it if everyone knew one Foo Fighters song.

Sing me a new song; the world is transfigured; all the Heavens are rejoicing.

Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.

The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils.

I was a strange, loud little kid who could sit at the piano and kill a Beethoven piece.

I have been very happy in the House of Representatives.

It confuses me and disappoints me when somebody says, ‚What does he do? What does he do?‘ My records are some of the biggest anthems ever. What do you think, they magically just appear? Obama walked out to my record.

You can’t be happy by doing something groovy.

Happiness is a ball after which we run wherever it rolls, and we push it with our feet when it stops.

I like to walk around with bare feet and I don’t like to comb my hair.

I heard a definition once: Happiness is health and a short memory! I wish I’d invented it, because it is very true.

The most important thing is to enjoy your life – to be happy – it’s all that matters.

Front yards are not made to walk in, but, at most, through, and you could go in the back way.

Happiness is a virtue, not its reward.

The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom.

I’m the king of the anthems.

If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.

I used to think that, given enough goodwill, anybody would be able to ‚get‘ any music, no matter how distant the culture from which it came. And then I heard Chinese opera.

As unique as we all are, an awful lot of us want the same things. We want to shake up our current less-than-fulfilling lives. We want to be happier, more loving, forgiving and connected with the people around us.

Once you start a working on something, don’t be afraid of failure and don’t abandon it. People who work sincerely are the happiest.

I sang a lot of low stuff on songs like ‚Secrets‘ and ‚Rockin‘,‘ almost like Toni Braxton. On ‚Secrets,‘ I’m a different person.