“Hunger is inexcusable in a world where grain rots in silos and butter turns rancid while being held for favorable commodity indices.”— Frank Sinatra, reprints.longform.orgTagged: Hunger, Greed
“Poverty is probably the greatest asset the Communists have. Wherever it exists, anyplace in the world, you have a potential Communist breeding ground. It figures that if a man is frustrated in a material sense, his family hungry, he suffers, he broods and he becomes susceptible to the blandishments…”— Frank Sinatra, reprints.longform.orgTagged: Poverty, Communism, Materialism, Ideology
“After all, despite the universal and unanimous assumption that both powers—Russia and the United States—already have stockpiled more nuclear weaponry than is necessary to vaporize the entire planet, each power continues to build, improve and enlarge its terrifying arsenal. For the first time in hist…”— Frank Sinatra, reprints.longform.orgTagged: Russia, Soviet Union, Nuclear War, Cold War, Stockpiling
“We in America pride ourselves on freedom of the press, but every day I see, and so do you, this kind of dishonesty and distortion not only in this area but in reporting—about guys like me, for instance, which is of minor importance except to me; but also in reporting world news. How can a free peopl…”— Frank Sinatra, reprints.longform.orgTagged: First Amendment, Misinformation, Fake News, Freedom
“There are things about organized religion which I resent. Christ is revered as the Prince of Peace, but more blood has been shed in His name than any other figure in history. You show me one step forward in the name of religion and I’ll show you a hundred retrogressions.”— Frank Sinatra, reprints.longform.orgTagged: Christ, Peace, Organized Religion, Bloodshed
“The history of mankind proves that at some point the people have their innings, and I think we’re about to come up to bat now. I think we can make it if we live and let live. And love one another—I mean really love.”— Frank Sinatra, reprints.longform.orgTagged: Hope, Love, History
“I believe in you and me. I’m like Albert Schweitzer and Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein in that I have a respect for life—in any form. I believe in nature, in the birds, the sea, the sky, in everything I can see or that there is real evidence for. If these things are what you mean by God, then…”— Frank Sinatra, reprints.longform.orgTagged: Bertrand Russell, Albert Schweitzer, Albert Einstein, God, Jack Daniels
“I’ve always had a theory that whenever guys and gals start swinging, they begin to lose interest in conquering the world. They just want a comfortable pad and stereo and wheels, and their thoughts turn to the good things of life—not to war. They loosen up, they live and they’re more apt to let live.…”— Frank Sinatra, reprints.longform.orgTagged: Swinging, Comfort, Leisure, Stereo
“I know some things, I believe in a thousand things, and I’m curious about a million more.”— Frank Sinatra, reprints.longform.orgTagged: Curiosity, Humility, Openness
“When I sing, I believe. I’m honest. If you want to get an audience with you, there’s only one way. You have to reach out to them with total honesty and humility.”— Frank Sinatra, reprints.longform.orgTagged: Singing, Honesty, Humility
“Fear is the enemy of logic. There is no more debilitating, crushing, self-defeating, sickening thing in the world—to an individual or to a nation. If we continue to fear the Russians, and if they continue to fear us, then we’re both in big trouble.”— Frank Sinatra, reprints.longform.orgTagged: Fear, Logic, Russia
“I don’t know what other singers feel when they articulate lyrics, but being an 18-karat manic-depressive and having lived a life of violent emotional contradictions, I have an over-acute capacity for sadness as well as elation. I know what the cat who wrote the song is trying to say. I’ve been there…”— Frank Sinatra, reprints.longform.orgTagged: Singing, Violence, Emotion, sentimentality
“Hate solves no problems. It only creates them.”— Frank Sinatra, reprints.longform.orgTagged: Hate, Problems
“As I see it, man is a product of his conditioning, and the social forces which mold his morality and conduct—including racial prejudice—are influenced more by material things like food and economic necessities than by the fear and awe and bigotry generated by the high priests of commercialized super…”— Frank Sinatra, reprints.longform.orgTagged: Conditioning, Morality, Behavior, food, Superstition
“I think it’s because I get an audience involved, personally involved in a song—because I’m involved myself. It’s not something I do deliberately: I can’t help myself. If the song is a lament at the loss of love, I get an ache in my gut. I feel the loss myself and I cry out the loneliness, the hurt a…”— Frank Sinatra, reprints.longform.orgTagged: Singing, Feeling, Loneliness