Harry Chapin famous quotes

Our lives are to be used and thus to be lived as fully as possible, and truly it seems that we are never so alive as when we concern ourselves with other people.
-- Harry Chapin

#Helping Others #People #Alive

I believe that success brings responsibility. It also does not bring immunity to the consequences of our quickening march towards oblivion. The bottom line is that all of us should be invovled in our own futures to create a world that our children will want to live in.
-- Harry Chapin

#Success #Children #Believe

If a man tried to take his time on earth and prove before he died, what one man's life could be worth, well I wonder what would happen to this world?
-- Harry Chapin

#Men #World #Earth

I've got nothing against selling out, but just let me do it for something that matters. Not so I can be Number One With a Bullet, as it were, but so I can leave this world feeling like I made a difference.
-- Harry Chapin

#Differences #Numbers #Feelings

What is needed is a marriage of two impulses, a coupling of the urge to do something positive with the willingness to constantly re-evaluate how effectively our actions lead to our goal - that of ending world hunger ...
-- Harry Chapin

#Two #Goal #World

If we can muster up that degree of commitment and get away from the uniquely American perception that if something can't be done immediately it isn't worth doing, then I think the Hunger Movement, this small but growing minority of us, can have a truly significant impact.
-- Harry Chapin

#Commitment #Thinking #Impact

The major thing I'm afraid of is being 65 and saying, 'Gee, I wish I had done this and that, and that.' I want to face old age knowing I've tried all I wanted to try.
-- Harry Chapin

#Knowing #Wish #Age

All of us should be involved in our own futures to create a world that our children will want to live in.
-- Harry Chapin

#Children #World #Want

The rock is gonna fall on us," he stood and told the class The professor put his chalk down and peered out through his glasses But he went on and said; "I've seen it, high up on the hill If it doesn't fall this year then very soon it will!
-- Harry Chapin

#Fall #Glasses #Rocks

To know is to care, to care is to act, to act is to make a difference.
-- Harry Chapin

#Differences #Making A Difference #Care

You see, she was gonna be an actress and I was gonna learn to fly. She took off to find the footlights, and I took off for the sky. And here, she's acting happy, inside her handsome home. And me, I'm flying in my taxi, taking tips, and getting stoned. I go flying so high, when I'm stoned.
-- Harry Chapin

#Travel #Home #Sky

When in doubt, do something.
-- Harry Chapin

#Live Life #Compassion #Doubt

The reason I fight for the arts as well as against hunger is because the arts are the qualitative way, are the effective way, are the traditional way we learn to make value decisions about who and what we are.
-- Harry Chapin

#Art #Fighting #Decision

Hello my Country I once came to tell everyone your story Your passion was my poetry And your past my most potent glory Your promise was my prayer Your hypocrisy my nightmare And your problems fill my present Are we both going somewhere?
-- Harry Chapin

#Country #Prayer #Passion

When I started this song I was still thirty-three The age that Mozart died and sweet Jesus was set free Keats and Shelley too soon finished, Charley Parker would be And I fantasized some tragedy'd be soon curtailing me Well just today I had my birthday I made it thirty-four Mere mortal, not immortal, not star-crossed anymore I've got this problem with my aging I no longer can ignore A tame and toothless tabby can't produce a lion's roar.
-- Harry Chapin

#Song #Sweet #Jesus

Strum your guitar sing it kid Just write about your feelings not the things you never did Inexperience, it once had cursed me But your youth is no handicap it's what makes you thirsty
-- Harry Chapin

#Writing #Kids #Guitar

I guess it's a sequel to our story From the journey 'tween heaven and hell With half the time thinking of what might have been and half thinkin' just as well. I guess only time will tell.
-- Harry Chapin

#Journey #Thinking #Heaven

Oh, he was the sun burning bright and brittle And she was the moon shining back his light a little He was a shooting star She was softer and more slowly He could not make things possible But, she could make them holy.
-- Harry Chapin

#Stars #Moon #Light

She was married for seven years to a concrete castle king. She said she wanted to learn to play the guitar and to hear her children sing. So I'd show up about once a week in my faded tight-legged jeans with a backlog full of hobo stories and dilapidated dreams.
-- Harry Chapin

#Dream #Kings #Children

There are lessons to life That the lovers got to learn There are corners out there You know they're waitin' somewhere And you've got to be prepared to turn There are callouses that come That the lovers got to earn In the years of your youth You can't be fire proof You know you've got to get burned.
-- Harry Chapin

#Fire #Years #Lessons

Oh all the times I've listened, and all the times I've heard All the melodies I'm missing, and all the magic words, And all those potent voices, and the choices we had then, How I'd love to find we had that kind of choice again.
-- Harry Chapin

#Voice #Choices #Missing

If you try to look But you don't touch Then you won't touch But you'll never feel And if you don't feel You'll never cry And if you don't cry Then you'll never heal.
-- Harry Chapin

#Trying #Looks #Cry

Why did the little girls grow crippled While the little boys grow strong The boys allowed to come of age The girls just came along The girls were told sing harmonies The boys could all sing songs That's why little girls grew crippled While little boys grew strong.
-- Harry Chapin

#Girl #Song #Strong

And all the trips you know you missed And all the lips you never kissed Cut through you like a knife. And now you see stretched out before thee Just another story of a life.
-- Harry Chapin

#Cutting #Knives #Stories

I come fresh from the street, fast on my feet, kind a lean and lazy; not much meat on my bones, and a whole lot alone, and more than a little bit crazy. The old six string was all I had to keep my belly still, and for each full hour lesson I gave I got a crisp ten dollar bill.
-- Harry Chapin

#Crazy #Feet #Lazy

There's a vacancy, won't you come to me And fill my empty spaces I'm a motel man in a promised land That's filled with empty faces So won't you bring your sorrows bring your dreams, It's a place for you to be There's no more tomorrow or that's how it seems Won't you come to me? I've got a vacancy
-- Harry Chapin

#Dream #Men #Land

The very day I purchased it, I christened my guitar as my monophonic symphony, six string orchestra.
-- Harry Chapin

#Guitar #Symphony #Orchestra

You see, I have no real complaints of how you've left your past behind I guess what gets me worried is you've erased him from your mind.
-- Harry Chapin

#Real #Past #Mind

I found you a thousand times; I guess you done the same; But then we lose each other; It's like a children's game; As I find you here again; A thought runs through my mind; Our love is like a circle; Let's go 'round one more time.
-- Harry Chapin

#Running #Children #Love Is

No straight lines make up my life; And all my roads have bends; There's no clear-cut beginnings; And so far no dead-ends.
-- Harry Chapin

#Cutting #Lines #Dead Ends

All my life's a circle; But I can't tell you why; Season's spinning round again; The years keep rollin' by.
-- Harry Chapin

#Years #Circles #Spinning

There are so many colors in the rainbow So many colors in the morning sun So many colors in the flower and I see every one.
-- Harry Chapin

#Morning #Flower #Color

Flowers are red, and green leaves are green. There's no need to see flowers any other way than the way they always have been seen.
-- Harry Chapin

#Flower #Needs #Green

I want the fact that I existed to mean something.
-- Harry Chapin

#Mean #Want #Facts

The reason nobody else in my business has any impact is because they're all comatose.
-- Harry Chapin

#Impact #Reason #Comatose

It's better sometimes when we don't get to touch our dreams.
-- Harry Chapin

#Dream #Art #Media

We all have the potential to move the world, and the world is ready to be moved.
-- Harry Chapin

#Moving #World #Ready

What I'd really like, Dad, is to borrow the car keys.
-- Harry Chapin

#Family #Dad #Keys

And I dream that something's coming And it's not just in the wind It's more than just tomorrow It's more than where we've been It offers me a promise It's telling me, begin!
-- Harry Chapin

#Dream #Hope #Wind

It's got to be the going, not the getting there, that's good.
-- Harry Chapin

#Journey

All my life's a circle; Sunrise and sundown; Moon rolls thru the nighttime; Till the daybreak comes around.
-- Harry Chapin

#Moon #Circles #Sunrise

I'm in the Dance Band on the Titanic Singing "Nearer my God to thee" and the icebergs on the starboard bow Won't you dance with me?
-- Harry Chapin

#Singing #Band #Bows

Remember when the music Came from wooden boxes strung with silver wire And as we sang the words, it would set our minds on fire, For we believed in things, and so we'd sing.
-- Harry Chapin

#Fire #Mind #Wire

The little boy went first day of school He got some crayons and started to draw He put colors all over the paper For colors was what he saw And the teacher said.. "What you doin' young man?" "I'm paintin' flowers" he said She said... "It's not the time for art young man And anyway flowers are green and red There's a time for everything young man And a way it should be done You've got to show concern for everyone else For you're not the only one.
-- Harry Chapin

#Teacher #Art #Flower

That's when I asked her where was that actress She said "That was somebody else" And then I asked her why she looked so happy now She said "I finally like myself, at last I like myself.
-- Harry Chapin

#Lasts #Actresses #Said

She said I've heard you flying high on my radio I answered "It's not all it seems" That's when she laughed and she said, "It's better sometimes When we don't get to touch our dreams.
-- Harry Chapin

#Dream #Flying #Radio

I'd rather make a mistake than do nothing.
-- Harry Chapin

#Mistake

And I know you're frightened By my laughter But you're not afraid To hold my pain You see I'm never sure Just what you're after, Babe But it seems you only love me When it rains. How come you only love me when it rains?
-- Harry Chapin

#Laughter #Pain #Rain

Good dreams don't come cheap, you've got to pay for them and If you just dream when you're asleep this is no way for them to come alive... to survive.
-- Harry Chapin

#Dream #Alive #Pay

If we say that no one's out there And we say we're goin' nowhere And we avoid the question Is this all that it means?
-- Harry Chapin

#Mean

And if our future Lies on the final line Are we brave enough To see the signals and the signs?
-- Harry Chapin

#Lying #Brave #Finals

And the wind will whip your tousled hair, The sun, the rain, the sweet despair, Great tales of love and strife. And somewhere on your path to glory You will write your story of a life.
-- Harry Chapin

#Sweet #Rain #Writing

Be involved with the people with the live hearts, the live eyes, who are committed to something.
-- Harry Chapin

#Heart #Eye #People

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon Little boy blue and the man in the moon.
-- Harry Chapin

#Song #Cat #Boys

When you're going nowhere, anywhere's a better place to be.
-- Harry Chapin

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon, Little boy blue and the man in the moon. "When you coming home, dad?" "I don't know when, But we'll get together then. You know we'll have a good time then.
-- Harry Chapin

#Dad #Home #Cat

Oh God they got you gun shy You know your skin's as cold as ice Your eyes are double filtered babe You're so afraid to be nice There's no way you're ready To let your defenses down Though I won't come on heavy There is a lesson that I've found.
-- Harry Chapin

#Nice #Eye #Gun

Good dreams don't come cheap You've got to pay for them.
-- Harry Chapin

#Dream #Pay #Good Dream

I spent a week there one afternoon.
-- Harry Chapin

#Afternoon #Week

I never really drove a cab, but I do have a hack license in case of emergencies - like no money.
-- Harry Chapin

#Emergencies #Cases #No Money

But you can travel on for ten thousand miles, and still stay where you are.
-- Harry Chapin

#Miles #Where You Are #Thousand

Short stories that's all it's ever been Don't you worry 'bout the ending Babe, before we begin I have seen the sun That's behind the rain I have felt the joy That's behind the pain.
-- Harry Chapin

#Pain #Rain #Worry

You know I need a dream Like I need my breath We need to take the life Before we get the death You know I need your love Like I need the light Yes I need the chance Can it be tonight?
-- Harry Chapin

#Dream #Light #Needs

And the look on her face as she opened the door Was like an old joke told by a friend. It'd taken ten more years but she'd found her smile And I watched the corners start to bend.
-- Harry Chapin

#Taken #Doors #Years

And while blood's the only language that your deaf old ears can hear And still you will not answer with that message coming clear Does it mean there's no more ripples in your tired old glory stream And the buzzards own the carcass of your dream?
-- Harry Chapin

#Dream #Tired #Mean

Good tired, ironically enough, can be a day that you lost. But you won’t even have to tell yourself, because you knew you fought your battles, you chased your dreams, you lived your days. And when you hit the hay at night, you settle easy, you sleep the sleep of the just, and you can say, “Take me away.
-- Harry Chapin

#Dream #Sleep #Tired

I went to sleep with the hope that made America famous. I had the kind of a dream that maybe they're still trying to teach in school. Of the America that made America famous...and Of the people who just might understand That how together yes we can Create a country better than The one we have made of this land, We have a choice to make each man who dares to dream, reaching out his hand A prophet or just a crazy God damn Dreamer of a fool
-- Harry Chapin

#Dream #Country #Crazy

She sings the songs without words Songs that sailors, and blind men, and beggars have heard She knows more of love than the poets can say And her eyes are for something that won't go away.
-- Harry Chapin

#Song #Eye #Men

Why were the little girls all frightened To be just what they are The boys were told to ask themselves How high how far The girls were told to reach the shelves While the boys were reaching stars That's why little girls were frightened To be just what they are.
-- Harry Chapin

#Girl #Stars #Boys

You see, dream-lover of a lady, what shakes me to the core Is the thought as you caress me, you've done this all before I think about the future with me out and others in Will I, too, have disappeared like I've never ever been?
-- Harry Chapin

#Dream #Thinking #Done

We've more important studies than your fantasies and fears You know that rock's been perched up there for a hundred thousand years.
-- Harry Chapin

#Rocks #Years #Important

And we would play together, like fine musicians should, And it would sound like music, and the music would sound good. But in real life I'm stuck with that same old formula, me and my monophonic symphony, six string orchestra.
-- Harry Chapin

#Real #Play #Symphony

He was dancing to some music No one else had ever heard He'd speak in unknown languages She would translate every word And then when the world was laughing At his castles in the sky She'd hold him in her body Till he once again could fly.
-- Harry Chapin

#Sky #Laughing #Dancing

But high up on the mountain When the wind is hitting it If you're watching very closely The rock slips a little bit...
-- Harry Chapin

#Rocks #Wind #Mountain