Yip Harburg Quotes

April in Paris, chestnuts in blossom, holiday tables under the trees.

If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow, why oh why can't I?

Oh, innocent victims of Cupid, remember this terse little verse: To let a fool kiss you is stupid. To let a kiss fool you is worse.

Someday I'll wish upon a star.

Follow the yellow brick road.

I am one of the last of a small tribe of troubadours, who still believe that life is a beautiful and exciting journey with a purpose and grace which are well worth singing about.

They who meet on an April night are forever lost in love, if there's moonlight all about and there's no moon above.

Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you feel a thought.

This we learn from Watergate that almost any creep'll be glad to help the Government overthrow the people.

My whole family has been having trouble with immigrants ever since we came to this country.

Music gives 'wings' to words.

My heart wants roots My mind wants wings. I cannot bear Their bickerings.

No matter how high or great the throne, What sits on it is the same as your own.

I am a rebel by birth... I contest anything that is unjust, that causes suffering in humanity. My feelings about that are so strong, I don't think I could live with myself if I weren't honest.

Ding-dong, the wicked witch is dead.

The greatest romance in the life of a lyricist is when the right word meets the right note; often, however, a Park Avenue phrase elopes with a Bleecker Street chord, resulting in a shotgun wedding and a quickie divorce.

The world would be a safer place, If someone had a plan, Before exploring outer space, To find the inner man.

All the heroes of tomorrow are the heretics of today.

The Lord made Adam, the Lord made Eve, he made 'em both a little bit naive.

Ira [Gershwin] was the shyest, most diffident boy we had ever known. In a class of lower east side rapscallions, his soft-spoken gentleness and low-keyed personality made him a lovable incongruity. He spoke in murmurs, hiding behind a pair of steel-rimmed glasses..Ira had a kid brother who wore high stiff collars, shirts with cuffs and went out with girls.

Songs are the pulse of a nation's heart. A fever chart of its health.

Once I built a railroad; now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?

Virtue is its own revenge.

When the idle poor, Become the idle rich, You'll never know, Just who is who, Or who is which.

We gotta be free - The eagle and me. see Amelia Jenks Bloomer, Emancipation of Women

Leave the atom alone.

For what we are about to receive, Oh Lord 'tis Thee we thank,' said the cannibal as he cut a slice off the missionary's shank.

No matter how much I prove and prod, I cannot quite believe in God; But oh, I hope to God that He, Unswervingly believes in me.

When the melody touches your heart emotionally and the words hit your brain intellectually, more than likely you'll find you'll have an excellent song to sing.

Lives of great men all remind us, Greatness takes no easy way, All the heroes of tomorrow, Are the heretics of today. Socrates and Galileo, John Brown, Thoreau, Christ, and Debs, Heard the night cry "Down with traitors!" And the dawn shout "Up the rebs!"

Did God who gave us flowers and trees, Also provide the allergies?

When I'm not near the girl I love, I love the girl I'm near.

It's a Barnum and Bailey world, Just as phony as it can be...

There ought to be a law against necessity.

Follow the fellow who follows a dream.

Say, it's only a paper moon, / Sailing over a cardboard sea.

How are things in Glocca Mora this fine day?

As the writer of the lyric of the song 'God's Country,' I am outraged by the suggestion that somehow I am connected with, believe in, or am sympathetic with Communist or totalitarian philosophy.

WHERE and WHEN, Are lost in space. THERE and THEN, Do not embrace. So before we disappear, Come sweet NOW and kiss the HERE.

A Russian child asked his mother : "does God know we don't believe in Him?"

Lives of great men all remind us greatness takes no easy way.