Guthrie Quotes

We all have the same root, and are connected...
To tap into this connectedness we must go within. ~ Summerlyn Guthrie

I've been researching it. I listed to an interview with an actual astronaut on the radio. He said that when he was young and made up his mind that he wanted to go to space, the first thing he did was to figure out all the small steps he would need to take to get there. Because lots of small steps, if they're good ones, can take you a long way if you're heading in the right direction. What most people don't do, this astronaut said, was to even take that first step – or if they do, they fail to plan the complete route to where they really want to be. Most people, he said, just stagger through life, one random step in one random direction at a time. But I've done it. I know what I want and how to get there. Now I just need to do it.
Pg 278 ~ James T. Guthrie

In writing songs, I've learned as much from Cezanne as I have from Woody Guthrie. ~ Bob Dylan

Along with a sense of humor, my songs have to be sincere, and they have to be sung from a position of inner conviction. ~ Arlo Guthrie

Every object in nature is impressed with God's footsteps, and every day repeats the wonders of creation. There is not an object, be it pebble or pearl, weed or rose, the flower-spangled sward beneath, or the star-spangled sky above, not a worm or an angel, a drop of water or a boundless ocean, in which intelligence may not discern, and piety adore, the providence of Him who took our nature that He might save our souls. ~ Thomas Guthrie

He smiled at her as Julia threw a snowball at Calla that missed her by a mile. Grinning, Calla quickly armed herself and threw one at Julia; only it missed her too and hit Guthrie in the crotch. Good thing it was soft snow. He grinned and wiped off the snow, slowly, deliberately, wolfishly.
Calla looked like she could burst into flames, she was so red faced. He started laughing. ~ Terry Spear

I ain't a Communist necessarily, but I have been in the red all my life. ~ Woody Guthrie

You could listen to Woody Guthrie songs and actually learn how to live ... ~ Bob Dylan

And the effect on yourself?' Guthrie said.

For a short time, Lymond was silent. Then he said, 'I had some strengths, which have grown. I had some weaknesses, which have gone.'

'That is true,' Adam Blacklock said. Slumped between floor and wall, he had leaned his tired head on the panelling; his face, with its thin scar, was turned without expression to Lymond. 'You have become a machine.'

'No,' said Philippa. 'That is not so.'

'But that is so,' said Lymond. 'How could I do my work otherwise? ~ Dorothy Dunnett

The mental powers acquire their full robustness when the cheek loses its ruddy hue, and the limbs their elastic step; and pale thought sits on manly brows, and the watchman, as he walks his rounds, sees the student's lamp burning far into the silent night. ~ Thomas Guthrie

I imagine people might look at me and think 'Oh, she has been single-mindedly working on her career all these years and those family issues have fallen by the wayside', but that is absolutely not the case. ~ Savannah Guthrie

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

I got a phone call from Douglas Campbell and from Jerome Guthrie, who offered me a job out of the blue. ~ Jeffrey Jones

Everyone has a responsibility to not only tolerate another person's point of view, but also to accept it eagerly as a challenge to your own understanding. And express those challenges in terms of serving other people. ~ Arlo Guthrie

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

Guthrie turned to see who his attacker was. And smiled when he caught her eye.
He had the most devilishly wolfish look about him -- a mixture of impending payback with a snowball and something a wee bit more intimate, like a tackle in the snow. But he wouldn't. Not in front of his clansmen. Not when they weren't courting. At least, she hoped not. ~ Terry Spear

The Christian is not always praying; but within his bosom is a heaven-kindled love
fires of desire, fervent longings
which make him always ready to pray, and often engage him in prayer. ~ Thomas Guthrie

Each stage of your life
is like petals of a flower...
unfolding and opening until it comes to full bloom...You will blossom and then you die...But know that this is not your ending. ~ Summerlyn Guthrie

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

It's about the time I was riding my Motorcycle, going down a mountain road at 150 miles an hour, playing my guitar. ~ Arlo Guthrie

I'm not just a singer-songwriter doing songs in the key of me. ~ Arlo Guthrie

I left the entertainment industry part of my life behind in 1983, when we decided not to work with major record companies anymore. ~ Arlo Guthrie

She looked,' said Alec Guthrie dryly, 'like a clever woman who was not unaware that five ill-dressed passers-by were displaying an unhealthy interest in her personal life. ~ Dorothy Dunnett

The fact that rape threats are a thing says a lot about how rape isn't a lapse in self-control but often a tool to punish & control others. ~ Steph Guthrie

A lot of my training is in classical theatre; I've done a lot of classical plays in New York and also at the Guthrie and here and there across the country. ~ Laila Robins

I don't want a pickle, I just want ride on my motorcikle. I don't want to die, I just want a ride on my motorcy ... cle. ~ Arlo Guthrie

Yes, I'd give my life to lay my head tonight
On a bed of California stars ~ Woody Guthrie

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

The clothes have no emperor. ~ Stewart Elliott Guthrie

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

I know enough,' said Adam Blacklock, 'not to ask a lot of interfering bloody questions and expect them to be answered. If someone builds a bulwark that high, it's for reasons that matter, I take it.'

'I also,' said Alec Guthrie. 'But a bulwark may cut off help, as well as interference. Jerott is right. To measure a ladder against it from time to time is justifiable.'

'Then let's leave it to Jerott,' said Danny. 'The next man with a ladder, I fancy, is going to find himself bounced off and run through the brisket. ~ Dorothy Dunnett

The spirit of Woody Guthrie lives in the heart of
Chris Chandler. ~ Peter Yarrow

I should get a manicure more often. ~ Savannah Guthrie

It is not with a rush and a spring that we are to reach Christ's character, and attain to perfect saintship; but step by step, foot by foot, hand over hand, we are slowly and often painfully to mount the ladder that rests on earth, and rises to heaven. ~ Thomas Guthrie

Time that weakens all things else has but strengthened the impregnable position of the believer's faith and hope and confidence. And as, year by year, the tree adds another ring to its circumference, every age has added the testimony of its events to this great truth. The grass withereth, and the flower fadeth, but the word of the Lord shall endure forever. ~ Thomas Guthrie

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

This machine kills fascists. ~ Woody Guthrie

My dad's songs were really written to make certain people feel as though they had some kind of value. Because they were told from where they work and from the countries they had immigrated from that they did not. ~ Arlo Guthrie

I was a working-class kid from Boston. But I never lost my accent because I felt like that was what I was doing. I didn't have to perform Woody Guthrie like Bob Dylan did in the '60s, I just had to make myself be Eileen Myles and let that be my shield. ~ Eileen Myles

A lot of Woody Guthrie's songs were taken from other songs. He would rework the melody and lyrics, and all of a sudden it was a Woody Guthrie song. ~ John Mellencamp

Heaven is the day of which grace is the dawn; the rich, ripe fruit of which grace is the lovely flower; the inner shrine of that most glorious temple to which grace forms the approach and outer court. ~ Thomas Guthrie

Music is a nice friend to have around, whether it is just for yourself or for other people. If you can enjoy it, being professional is almost secondary. ~ Arlo Guthrie

It is a matter of spirit, not strength. It is a matter of doing your best each little moment. There's never a break. You must have desire, a very intense desire to keep going. ~ Janet Guthrie

Let me ask you. If someone called you and offered you a ride in the Indianapolis 500 and you were a male race car driver, would you turn the ride down? ~ Janet Guthrie

Directing is to fill anyone with a yearning to get back at ten o'clock next morning. ~ Tyrone Guthrie

Religion is the mortar that binds society together; the granite pedestal of liberty; the strong backbone of the social system. ~ Thomas Guthrie

I thought I would be governor of Massachusetts. I stood on a pile of my old albums and said, 'I'm the only one with a record to stand on.' ~ Arlo Guthrie

Astonish me in the morning! ~ Tyrone Guthrie

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

Genius is often mistaken for idiocy, when perception is blurred by conformity ~ Jerry Guthrie

Song-writing's just kinda like catching fish--you sit there and pull them out as they go by--though I think Bob Dylan's up stream from me somewhere. ~ Arlo Guthrie

You drive the car, you don't carry it. ~ Janet Guthrie

Racing is a passion ... at this level, a source of immense gratification. So the rest is no problem. ~ Janet Guthrie

Whatever you've learned becomes truly useful to you only once it has become second nature. ~ Guthrie Govan

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

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

I came along and was a teenager in the Depression, and nobody had jobs. So I went out hitchhiking, when I met a man named Woody Guthrie. He was the single biggest part of my education. ~ Pete Seeger

In a phone interview in 1994, Celia Powell stressed two sentiments: music was her father's life; it was the driving force of his existence, in her opinion. And she thought the music industry had very much taken advantage of him.121 ~ Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr.

Florence Dodson was murdered the same night that Claire Guthrie shot her husband. For me, the story began with Claire, and I put Mrs. Dodson on the back burner in my mind. That turned out to be a mistake. ~ Judy Alter

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

Democracy doesn't begin at the top; it begins at the bottom, when flesh-and-blood human beings fight to rekindle what Arlo Guthrie calls 'The Patriot's Dream. ~ Bill Moyers

Big and little they went on together to Molalla, to Tuska, to Roswell, Guthrie, Kaycee, to Baker and Bend. After a few weeks Pake said that if Diamond wanted a permanent traveling partner he was up for it. Diamond said yeah, although only a few states still allowed steer roping and Pake had to cover long, empty ground, his main territory in the livestock country of Oklahoma, Wyoming, Oregon and New Mexico. Their schedules did not fit into the same box without patient adjustment. But Pake knew a hundred dirt road shortcuts, steering them through scabland and slope country, in and out of the tiger shits, over the tawny plain still grooved with pilgrim wagon ruts, into early darkness and the first storm laying down black ice, hard orange-dawn, the world smoking, snaking dust devils on bare dirt, heat boiling out of the sun until the paint on the truck hood curled, ragged webs of dry rain that never hit the ground, through small-town traffic and stock on the road, band of horses in morning fog, two redheaded cowboys moving a house that filled the roadway and Pake busting around and into the ditch to get past, leaving junkyards and Mexican cafes behind, turning into midnight motel entrances with RING OFFICE BELL signs or steering onto the black prairie for a stunned hour of sleep. ~ Annie Proulx

If you want to end war and stuff, you gotta sing loud. ~ Arlo Guthrie

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

The defendant removed his gloves and started toward the victim. Mr. Farley, still teasing, said: "Ooo, he's taking his gloves off." The defendant then pulled a knife from his pocket and stabbed the victim in the neck. He also stabbed Mr. Farley in the arm as he fell to the floor. Mr. Farley looked up and cried: "Man, I was just kidding around." The defendant responded: "Well, man, you should have never hit me in my face. ~ Franklin Cleckley

In the spangled sky, the rainbow, the woodland hung with diamonds, the sward sown with pearly dew, the rosy dawn, the golden clouds of even, the purple mountains, the hoary rock, the blue boundless main, Nature's simplest flower, or some fair form of laughing child or lovely maiden, we cannot see the beautiful without admiring it. ~ Thomas Guthrie

I use an Electrix repeater [for live looping]. It works ... it's unstable and the MIDI implementation was written by a sped. I think it's Canadian but that may be a coincidence. I've been through all sorts, the original jam man was great but clicked on the loop if you didn't get it just right, something I am familiar with. As I said in another answer I have an RC50 but haven't fired it up yet. On paper it looks great. ~ Robin Guthrie

Guthrie handed him the mug, a wee pout pulling his pale face out of shape. With his semi-skimmed skin, faint ginger hair, and blond eyebrows he looked like a ghost that had been at the pies. "Milk, two sugars. ~ Stuart MacBride

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

Racing takes everything you've got
intellectually, emotionally, physically
and then you have to find about ten percent more and use that too. ~ Janet Guthrie

If you do anything for 40 years, you can do it comfortably. And it will always be good. But unless you're willing to risk it being bad, it can never be great. ~ Arlo Guthrie

I played around our yard some and talked to the fence posts, sung songs and made the weeds sing ... - WOODY GUTHRIE ~ Richard Louv

Renaissance cowboy/raconteur Pop Wagner ... deadpan funny ... his presence is like meeting Woody Guthrie and Will Rogers riding a single, many colored horse. Pop is a kind of 'textile genius' who is able to spin, at once, both yarn and rope. ~ Ron Miles

Guthrie said, 'You are destroying yourself. You are destroying all that makes common cause with your fellows.'

'Some of it,' said Lymond calmly. 'It is my parting gift to you all. You are free, and so am I. There are no bonds between us, except those of the intellect.'

'And the intellect,' said Alec Guthrie, 'will bring you back to us?'

'Self-interest,' Lymond said, 'will bring me back to you. And intellect, I trust, will maintain me. ~ Dorothy Dunnett

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

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

Fiction is love and hate and agreement and conflict and common adventure, not lonely musings on have-beens and might-have-beens. ~ Alfred Bertram Guthrie

I don't do anything on stage that allows me to become a trained seal, where you're just doing the same thing over and over. ~ Arlo Guthrie

sensational adventure of Mr Malcolm Guthrie of Braemore took the pages of many newspapers by storm. Even The Daily Mail of London devoted several lines to it in its column 'Bizarre'. However, because very few of our readers read the press south of the Tweed, and if they do, then only newspapers more serious than The Daily Mail, let us remind you what happened. On the day of the 10th March last year Mr Malcolm Guthrie went fishing to Loch Glascarnoch. While there Mr Guthrie happened upon a young woman with an ugly scar on her face (sic!), riding a black mare (sic) in the company of a white unicorn (sic), who were emerging from the fog and darknes (sic). ~ Andrzej Sapkowski

The New York State Freeway's closed, man. Far out! ~ Arlo Guthrie

Left wing, right wing, chicken wing. ~ Woody Guthrie

Celtic music is part of the language in Scotland and Ireland, where every kid and grandparent knows those songs, music by the likes of Woody Guthrie and Hank Snow is getting entrenched here. They are part of our cultural language. It's part of a living treasure. It doesn't just belong to a museum. ~ Rosanne Cash

I was pretty understanding, wasn't I?" I smiled at him cheekily. "I love you, Daniel, but for the record, you can tell your demons to fuck the hell off, or I'll kick their asses. ~ Georgina Guthrie

As I look back on my life, I can reflect on those times when I allowed myself to be held back by what others said to me...at one point in my life, I felt intimidated by some people.
As I stand now...I don't allow intimidation...I have come to realize in my life that I have CHOICE as to how my life will go...God and I are the writers and I dare not give anyone else a pen to write their version of how it should go.
I remember as a child, as I lay asleep before waking in the morning, I would hear a voice within me gently asking me,
"Are you ready to start this day?! It's time to get up!!"
No, it wasn't anyone trying to wake me, but I felt it was a heavenly presence.
As I grew up, that same presence was with me...like a guardian angel I guess you can say...Something...someone was always there with me.
I thank God for this journey I've been on...I've been allowed to live and experience so much more than most. I've been allowed to make mistakes and learn from them. I thank God for having that presence in my life...protecting me and guiding me like a compass, as I make my way Home. ~ Summerlyn Guthrie

You will never find peace with these fascists
You'll never find friends such as we
So remember that valley of Jarama
And the people that'll set that valley free.
From this valley they say we are going
Do not hasten to bid us adieu
Even though we lost the battle at Jarama
We'll set this valley before we're through.
All this world is like this valley called Jarama
So green and so bright and so fair
No fascists can dwell in our valley
Nor breathe in our new freedoms air. ~ Woody Guthrie

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

God must like to get off by Himself sometimes and caper. Must get mighty tiresome, keepin' tally on folks and gettin' the sun up and tuckin' it in bed and bringin' the rain on and all, and all the time actin' stiff and proper. That surely was it, God must like to throw Himself around some and be silly if He felt like it. ~ A.B. Guthrie Jr.

It is very desirable to have a word to express the Availability for work of the heat in a given magazine; a term for that possession, the waste of which is called Dissipation. Unfortunately the excellent word Entropy, which Clausius has introduced in this connexion, is applied by him to the negative of the idea we most naturally wish to express. It would only confuse the student if we were to endeavour to invent another term for our purpose. But the necessity for some such term will be obvious from the beautiful examples which follow. And we take the liberty of using the term Entropy in this altered sense ... The entropy of the universe tends continually to zero. ~ Peter Guthrie Tait

Speak, fair; but speak fair words, or else be mute: ~ Georgina Guthrie

You get people talking about being worried about their art, and dances ... their culture being wiped out or taken over, and yet these same people are taking advantage of their people to use them as cheap labour. ~ Arlo Guthrie

I'm trying to set out the passion and complexity of this sport. Many people think it's a dumb activity: stand on the gas and turn left. In fact, it's probably one of the most complex sports in existence. ~ Janet Guthrie

I have all kinds of lovely ideas for games and the like." She glanced at Guthrie. "None require swordplay."
Guthrie shook his head. "Where's the fun in that? ~ Terry Spear

When life hands you lemonade, don't try to make lemons ~ Vince Guthrie

In despair, I offer your readers their choice of the following definitions of entropy. My authorities are such books and journals as I have by me at the moment.
(a) Entropy is that portion of the intrinsic energy of a system which cannot be converted into work by even a perfect heat engine. - Clausius.
(b) Entropy is that portion of the intrinsic energy which can be converted into work by a perfect engine. - Maxwell, following Tait.
(c) Entropy is that portion of the intrinsic energy which is not converted into work by our imperfect engines. - Swinburne.
(d) Entropy (in a volume of gas) is that which remains constant when heat neither enters nor leaves the gas. - W. Robinson.
(e) Entropy may be called the 'thermal weight', temperature being called the 'thermal height.' - Ibid.
(f) Entropy is one of the factors of heat, temperature being the other. - Engineering.
I set up these bald statement as so many Aunt Sallys, for any one to shy at.
[Lamenting a list of confused interpretations of the meaning of entropy, being hotly debated in journals at the time.] ~ Sydney Herbert Evershed

I can remember back as far as age 8, performing with the Boston Folk Song Society. It was a Woody Guthrie song. ~ Frank Black

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

When i reached the bottom, i finally understood what Guthrie meant when he shouted, "LIBERO!" It was a celebration of being alive ~ Sharon Creech

Nouns and verbs are the guts of the language. Beware of covering up with adjectives and adverbs. ~ A.B. Guthrie Jr.

Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie

When yer head gets twisted and yer mind grows numb

When you think you're too old, too young, too smart or too dumb

When yer laggin' behind an' losin' yer pace

In a slow-motion crawl of life's busy race

No matter what yer doing if you start givin' up

If the wine don't come to the top of yer cup

If the wind's got you sideways with with one hand holdin' on

And the other starts slipping and the feeling is gone

And yer train engine fire needs a new spark to catch it

And the wood's easy findin' but yer lazy to fetch it

And yer sidewalk starts curlin' and the street gets too long

And you start walkin' backwards though you know its wrong

And lonesome comes up as down goes the day

And tomorrow's mornin' seems so far away

And you feel the reins from yer pony are slippin'

And yer rope is a-slidin' 'cause yer hands are a-drippin'

And yer sun-decked desert and evergreen valleys

Turn to broken down slums and trash-can alleys

And yer sky cries water and yer drain pipe's a-pourin'

And the lightnin's a-flashing and the thunder's a-crashin'

And the windows are rattlin' and breakin' and the roof tops a-shakin'

And yer whole world's a-slammin' and bangin'

And yer minutes of sun turn to hours of storm

And t ~ Bob Dylan

Any big organization can be subverted by governments or multinational special interests. They have the resources to cast doubt and fear over any group they feel threatened by. ~ Arlo Guthrie