Woody Guthrie Quotes

It's a folk singer's job to comfort disturbed people and to disturb comfortable people

I would like to see every single soldier on every single side, just take off your helmet, unbuckle your kit, lay down your rifle, and set down at the side of some shady lane, and say, nope, I aint a gonna kill nobody. Plenty of rich folks wants to fight. Give them the guns.

Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple.

I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work. And the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you.

Some men rob you with a six-gun -- others rob you with a fountain pen.

Life has got a habit of not standing hitched. You got to ride it like you find it. You got to change with it. If a day goes by that don't change some of your old notions for new ones, that is just about like trying to milk a dead cow.

Was a great high wall there that tried to stop me. Was a great big sign there said private Property but on the back side it didn't say nothing. That side was made for you and me.

I love a good man outside the law, just as much as I hate a bad man inside the law.

If we fix it so's you can't make money on war, we'll all forget what we're killing folks for.

The best way to get to know any bunch of people is to go and listen to their music.

The note of hope is the only note that can help us or save us from falling to the bottom of the heap of evolution, because, largely, about all a human being is, anyway, is just a hoping machine.

The world is filled with people who are no longer needed -- and who try to make slaves of all of us -- and they have their music and we have ours.

There's several ways of saying what's on your mind. And in states and counties where it ain't too healthy to talk too loud, speak your mind, or even vote like you want to, folks have found other ways of getting the word around. One of the mainest ways is by singing.

Take it easy, but take it.

Anyone who used more than three chords is just showing off.

One day we'll all find out that all of our songs was just little notes in a great big song!

Love is the only medicine I believe in.

As I went walking I saw a sign there And on the sign it said "No Trespassing." But on the other side it didn't say nothing, That side was made for you and me. This land is your land, this land is my land From California to the New York island From the Redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters This land was made for you and me.

I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any good. I hate a song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. Bound to lose. No good to nobody. No good for nothing. Because you are too old or too young or too fat or too slim too ugly or too this or too that.

Left wing, chicken wing, it don't make no difference to me.

Life's pretty tough . . . you're lucky if you live through it.

I better quit my talking 'cause I told you all I know But please remember, pardner, wherever you may go The people are building a peaceful world, and when the job is done, That'll be the biggest thing that man has ever done.

Left wing. Right wing. Chicken wing.

Uncle Sam took up the challenge in the year of '33 For the farmer and the factory and all of you and me. He said, "Roll along Columbia. You can ramble to the sea, But river while you're ramblin' you can do some work for me."

You can't write a good song about a whorehouse unless you've been in one.

A folk song is what's wrong and how to fix it or it could be who's hungry and where their mouth is or who's out of work and where the job is or who's broke and where the money is or who's carrying a gun and where the peace is.

Life has a habit of not staying hitched. You got to ride it like you find it.

I ain't a communist necessarily, but I been in the red all my life.

The words are the important thing. Don't worry about tunes. Take a tune, sing high when they sing low, sing fast when they sing slow, and you've got a new tune.

A song ain't nothing but a conversation fixed up to where you can talk it over and over without getting tired of it.

Now as through this world I ramble, I see lots of funny men, Some rob you with a six gun, And some with a fountain pen.

One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple, by the Relief Office, I saw my people - As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering if God blessed America for me.

I worked in your orchards of peaches and prunes. I slept on the ground in the light of the moon. On the edge of the city you'll see us and then, we come with the dust and we go with the wind.

You oil field workers, come and listen to me I'm goin' to tell you a story about old John D. That company union made a fool out of me. That company union don't charge no dues It leaves you a-singing them Rockefeller blues. That company union made a fool out of me. Takes that good ole C.I.O., boys To keep that oil a-rollin', rollin' over the sea. Takes that good ole C.I.O., boys To keep that oil a-rollin' over the sea.

My eyes has been my camera taking pictures of the world and my songs has been my messages that I tried to scatter across the back sides and along the steps of the fire escapes and on the window sills and through the dark halls.

If you play more than two chords, you're showing off.

Let me be known as just the man that told you something you already knew.

The world is filled with people who are no longer needed. And who try to make slaves of all of us. And they have their music and we have ours. Theirs, the wasted songs of a superstitious nightmare. And without their music and ideological miscarriages to compare our songs of freedom to, we'd not have any opposite to compare music with - - and like the drifting wind, hitting against no obstacle, we'd never know its speed, its power.

This land is made for you and me.

This machine kills fascists.

Now as I look around, it's mighty plain to see, This world is such a great and a funny place to be. Oh, the gamblin' man is rich, an' the workin' man is poor, And I ain't got no home in this world anymore.

If you want to learn something, just steal it.

It's round the world I've traveled; it's round the world I've roamed; but I've yet to see an outlaw drive a family from its home

This land is your land, this land is my land

If you walk across my camera I will flash the world your story.

All about a human being is, it's a great big hoping machine.

All you can write is what you see.

I got started in Oklahoma. That's where I was born. Population down there is one-third Indians, one-third Negroes and one-third white people.

I have decided long ago that my songs and ballads would not get the hugs and kisses of the capitalistic experts.

Okemah was one of the singingest, square dancingest, drinkingest, yellingest, preachingest, walkingest, talkingest, laughingest, cryingest, shootingest, fist fightingest, bleedingest, gamblingest, gun, club and razor carryingest of our ranch towns and farm towns, because it blossomed out into one of our first Oil Boom Towns.