Skip to main content

Creativity Quote by Clarence Clemons

"Being involved in the well-being and advancement of one's own community is a most natural thing to do"

About this Quote

Clemons frames community care as instinct, not ideology, and that choice matters. “Most natural” is a quiet rebuke to the way civic responsibility gets treated like a political hobby or a luxury add-on. He’s insisting that showing up for your people isn’t saintly; it’s basic. Coming from a musician best known as the Big Man in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, the line carries the lived logic of a performer who watched crowds turn into temporary communities night after night: strangers syncing their breathing, their chants, their hopes. In that world, belonging isn’t abstract. It’s something you can hear.

The pairing of “well-being” and “advancement” is also doing work. Well-being suggests immediate care - protection, dignity, survival. Advancement raises the stakes: opportunity, power, movement. Clemons isn’t romanticizing mutual aid as mere kindness; he’s smuggling in a demand for progress. Community isn’t just a place to feel safe, it’s a vehicle to get somewhere better.

There’s subtext, too, in “one’s own.” It sounds parochial, but it’s less about exclusion than accountability. Start where you are. Use the access you actually have. For Clemons, a Black artist who navigated an industry that profited from Black sound while often sidelining Black control, “advancement” reads like a pointed reminder that culture isn’t only entertainment - it’s leverage.

The line lands because it refuses drama. It normalizes solidarity, making selfishness look like the strange behavior. That’s a musician’s rhetorical trick: make the humane thing feel like the groove everyone already knows.

Quote Details

TopicPeace
SourceHelp us find the source
CiteCite this Quote

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Clemons, Clarence. (n.d.). Being involved in the well-being and advancement of one's own community is a most natural thing to do. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/being-involved-in-the-well-being-and-advancement-38103/

Chicago Style
Clemons, Clarence. "Being involved in the well-being and advancement of one's own community is a most natural thing to do." FixQuotes. Accessed February 3, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/being-involved-in-the-well-being-and-advancement-38103/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Being involved in the well-being and advancement of one's own community is a most natural thing to do." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/being-involved-in-the-well-being-and-advancement-38103/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Clarence Add to List
Clarence Clemons: Community Involvement - A Natural Act
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

USA Flag

Clarence Clemons (January 11, 1942 - June 18, 2011) was a Musician from USA.

12 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes