Woody Guthrie famous quotes

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

#Simple #Fool #Genius

It's a folk singers job to comfort disturbed people and to disturb comfortable people
-- Woody Guthrie

#Jobs #People #Singers

Take it easy, but take it.
-- Woody Guthrie

#Philosophy #Easy #Take It Easy

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

#Wings #Differences #Chickens

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

#Hate #Men #Law

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.
-- Woody Guthrie

#Change #Trying #Cows

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.
-- Woody Guthrie

#People #Trying #World

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.
-- Woody Guthrie

#Song #Pride #Color

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.
-- Woody Guthrie

#Fighting #Gun #Giving

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

#Music #Song #Tired

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.
-- Woody Guthrie

#Fall #Machines #Helping

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.
-- Woody Guthrie

#Healthy #Mind #Singing

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

#Song #One Day #Littles

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

#People #Way #Bunch

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.
-- Woody Guthrie

#Moon #Wind #Cities

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

#Gun #Men #Six

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.
-- Woody Guthrie

#Wall #Opportunity #Sides

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

#Men #He Man #Let Me

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...
-- Woody Guthrie

#Song #Eye #Dark

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.
-- Woody Guthrie

#Worry #Important #Tunes

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.
-- Woody Guthrie

#Song #Jobs #Gun

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.
-- Woody Guthrie

#Morning #Blessed #America

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....
-- Woody Guthrie

#Song #Miscarriage #Wind

All you can write is what you see.
-- Woody Guthrie

#Writing

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

#Stories #World #Cameras

This machine kills fascists.
-- Woody Guthrie

#Machines #Fascists #Power Of Music

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

#Guitar #Three #Chords

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

#Play #Two #Ego

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

#Lucky #Tough

Love is the only medicine I believe in.
-- Woody Guthrie

#Believe #Love Is #Medicine

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.
-- Woody Guthrie

#New York #Journey #Islands

I like to write about wherever I happen to be.
-- Woody Guthrie

#Writing

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.
-- Woody Guthrie

#Song #Hate #Crazy

Nobody living can ever stop me. As I go walking my freedom highway. Nobody living can make me turn back. This land was made for you and me.
-- Woody Guthrie

#Hippie #Land #Made

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.
-- Woody Guthrie

#Gun #Men #Democracy

I know the police cause you trouble They cause trouble everywhere But when you die and go to heaven You find no policeman there
-- Woody Guthrie

#Heaven #Police #Causes

If you want to learn something, just steal it.
-- Woody Guthrie

#Want #Stealing

Do Re Mi California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see, But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot If you ain't got the do re mi
-- Woody Guthrie

#Believe #Garden #California

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.
-- Woody Guthrie

#Gun #Oil #Squares

All of you cowboys, fight for your land.
-- Woody Guthrie

#Fighting #Cowboy #Land

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

#Freedom #Red #Communist

This land is made for you and me.
-- Woody Guthrie

#Land #Made

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.
-- Woody Guthrie

#Jobs #Men #Talking

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

#Song #Kissing #Long

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.
-- Woody Guthrie

#Oklahoma #White #People

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

#War #Forget #Making Money

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
-- Woody Guthrie

#Home #World #Outlaw

As I went walking That ribbon of highway I saw above me The endless skyway I saw below me The lonesome valley This land was made for you and me.
-- Woody Guthrie

#Land #Valleys #Ribbons

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.
-- Woody Guthrie

#Boys #Sea #Oil

This land is your land, this land is my land
-- Woody Guthrie

#Land