Willie Nelson famous quotes

I take it not only a day at a time, but a moment at a time, and keep it at that pace. If you can be happy right now, then you’ll always be happy, because it’s always in the now
-- Willie Nelson

#Pace #Moments #Always Be Happy

I think the best exercise that I do is singing for an hour-and-a-half out on the stage, because, yes, I use the lung, the biggest muscle in your body.
-- Willie Nelson

#Exercise #Thinking #Singing

Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results.
-- Willie Nelson

#Life #Positive #Anger

When I was growing up, Nashville was the place to go if you had songs to sell and thought you had talent and wanted to tour and be on Grand Ole Opry [radio show]. It was the big deal back in those days to play the Grand Ole Opry. And you could travel around the world saying, "Hi, I'm Willie from the Grand Ole Opry".
-- Willie Nelson

#Song #Growing Up #Nashville

Oh, I think it's definitely spiritual. All music is. I think it's maybe one of the highest forms of spirituality.
-- Willie Nelson

#Spiritual #Country #Thinking

There are just certain sounds, music, that sort of you know people are going to like it.
-- Willie Nelson

#People #Sound #Certain

When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.
-- Willie Nelson

#Gratitude #Appreciation #Self Confidence

I don't smoke as many joints as I used to.
-- Willie Nelson

#Joints #Used

Gatewood Galbraith was a good friend, and a tireless advocate for the repeal of the ridiculous ban on hemp & marijuana. His book ‘The Last Free Man Standing’ says it all.
-- Willie Nelson

#Book #Good Friend #Marijuana

I use vaporizers a lot. It cuts down on the heat and the smoke. And for a singer that's not a bad idea.
-- Willie Nelson

#Cutting #Ideas #Use

The biggest killer on the planet is stress and I still think the best medicine is and always has been cannabis.
-- Willie Nelson

#Stress #Thinking #Marijuana

At 82, Nelson (who wrote the song "On the Road Again," among a thousand or more others) is the elder statesman of country music, a steadying and powerful voice in the industry and on environmental issues, and he's still on the road much of the year. The music keeps calling.
-- Willie Nelson

#Country #Song #Powerful

I think most art comes out of poverty and hard times.
-- Willie Nelson

#Art #Thinking #Hard Times

It was and is always nice to work with the kids.
-- Willie Nelson

#Nice #Kids

I got along without you before I met you and I'll get along without you a long time after you're gone.
-- Willie Nelson

#Long #Gone #Mets

My first job was in a Bohemian polka band, the Rejcek family polka band in Abbott. The old man in the band had another blacksmith shop in Abbott, but he liked me. All he had was horns and drums, and I was set up over there with my little guitar with no amps or nothing. I would play as loud as I wanted to, and nobody could hear me.
-- Willie Nelson

#Jobs #Men #Guitar

I believe that all roads lead to the same place - and that is wherever all roads lead to.
-- Willie Nelson

#Believe #I Believe

When I would sell encyclopedias, I would drive down the road looking for a house with a swing set in the back, and I'd say, "Oh, those folks got kids. They need some books." I'd knock on their door and sell them a set of encyclopedias, and those books were from $300 to $600. I'd look around the house, and if there wasn't that much furniture in the house, I felt a little bad about selling a $600 set of books to people who couldn't afford a couch. So I didn't last at that job very long.
-- Willie Nelson

#Jobs #Book #Kids

There are more old drunks than there are old doctors.
-- Willie Nelson

#Beer #Doctors #Drunk

My sister played the piano. She's two years older than me, and I always wanted to play something. So my grandmother got the guitar for me, and showed me a couple of chords to start off. And then I got me a book. Next thing you know, I was playing along with sister.
-- Willie Nelson

#Couple #Book #Grandmother

As long as there's a few farmers out there, we'll keep fighting for them.
-- Willie Nelson

#Fighting #Long #Farmers

My granddaddy died when I was about 6 years old, I think. And my grandmother took a job cooking in the school lunchroom. So she did great. She made $18 a week.
-- Willie Nelson

#Jobs #School #Grandmother

Writing books is fun because after I do a show for a couple hours, I'm in a bus for 22 hours. It's not hard for me to look out the window and tell a joke here and there.
-- Willie Nelson

#Couple #Fun #Book

Gay or straight? So what? It doesn't matter to me. We have to be concerned about other people regardless.
-- Willie Nelson

#Gay #People #Matter

Three chords and the truth - that's what a country song is.
-- Willie Nelson

#Country #Song #Three

Be here. Be present. Wherever you are, be there.
-- Willie Nelson

I think innately knew that music draws people together and that good music is liked by almost everybody.
-- Willie Nelson

#Thinking #People #Together

As adults we try to relax from the never-ending quest for reason and order by drinking a little whiskey or smoking whatever works for us, but the wisdom isn't in the whiskey or the smoke. The wisdom is in the moments when the madness slips away and we remember the basics.
-- Willie Nelson

#Drinking #Order #Smoking

Every now and then I'll think of something to put back in the show. I just kind of play it off the top of my head. If I do it that way it keeps it kinda fresh.
-- Willie Nelson

#Thinking #Play #Way

I'm from Texas, and one of the reasons I like Texas is because there's no one in control.
-- Willie Nelson

#Texas #Reason

There's so many things going on in the world, Babies dying. Mothers crying. How much oil is one human life worth. And what ever happened to peace on earth.
-- Willie Nelson

#Mother #Baby #Peace

There is only one map to the journey of life and it lives within your heart
-- Willie Nelson

#Heart #Journey #Maps

If you’re not crazy there’s something wrong with you. Willie Nelson
-- Willie Nelson

#Crazy

We are the same. There is no difference anywhere in the world. People are people. They laugh, cry, feel, and love, and music seems to be the commons denomination that brings us all together. Music cuts through all boundaries and goes right to the soul.
-- Willie Nelson

#Cutting #Differences #Laughing

A lot of country music is sad. I think most art comes out of poverty and hard times. It applies to music. Three chords and the truth — that’s what a country song is. There is a lot of heartache in the world.
-- Willie Nelson

#Country #Song #Art

Fortunately, we are not in control.
-- Willie Nelson

Where I grew up, Bob Wills and his western swing was very popular. And western swing is not that far from jazz and blues.
-- Willie Nelson

#Swings #Bob #Jazz

I believe in looseness.
-- Willie Nelson

#Believe #I Believe #I Believe In

I was in the Air Force a while and they had what they call "policing the area." That's where you looked around and if there's anything wrong here, there, anywhere, you took care of your own area. And I think that's a pretty good thing to go by. If everyone just takes care of their own area then we won't have any problems. Be here. Be present. Wherever you are, be there. And look around you and see what needs to be changed.
-- Willie Nelson

#Thinking #Air #Needs

...when you put your life in a good place, good things follow.
-- Willie Nelson

#Good Things

You'll never get ahead by blaming your problems on other people.
-- Willie Nelson

#People #Blame #Problem

You will never find happiness until you stop looking for it.
-- Willie Nelson

#Finding Happiness

I don't remember Moses writing, 'Thou shalt not kill.. unless you think you have a good reason.
-- Willie Nelson

#Peace #Writing #Thinking

When I'm driving the highway by myself is when I write best.
-- Willie Nelson

#Writing #Driving #Highways

The fight to save family farms isn't just about farmers. It's about making sure that there is a safe and healthy food supply for all of us. It's about jobs, from Main Street to Wall Street. It's about a better America.
-- Willie Nelson

#Jobs #Wall #Fighting

I never gave up on country music because I knew what I was doing was not that bad.
-- Willie Nelson

#Country #Gave Up

What has changed is that nothing has changed... that's what has made me more unhappy than everything else.
-- Willie Nelson

#Unhappy #Atheism #Made

When songs fall from the sky, all I can do is catch them before they hit the ground.
-- Willie Nelson

#Song #Fall #Sky

I'm an old fashioned joint smoker ya know.
-- Willie Nelson

#Joints #Old Fashioned

Be gentle with your words - you can't take them back.
-- Willie Nelson

#Gentle

America, to me, is freedom.
-- Willie Nelson

#America

I think it is just terrible and disgusting how everyone has treated Lance Armstrong, especially after what he achieved winning seven Tour de France races while on drugs......When I was on drugs I couldn't even find my bike.
-- Willie Nelson

#Winning #Thinking #Race

You know why divorces are so expensive? They're worth it.
-- Willie Nelson

#Divorce #Worth It

All I do is play music and golf - which one do you want me to give up?
-- Willie Nelson

#Giving Up #Golf #Play

We create our own unhappiness. The purpose of suffering is to help us understand we are the ones who cause it.
-- Willie Nelson

#Suffering #Purpose #Causes

There's a freedom you begin to feel the closer you get to Austin, Texas.
-- Willie Nelson

#Texas #Austin #Feels

I think people need to be educated to the fact that ***** is not a drug. Marijuana is an herb and a flower. God put it here. If He put it here and He wants it to grow, what gives the government the right to say that God is wrong?
-- Willie Nelson

#Flower #Marijuana #Thinking

On the road again, goin' places that I've never been. Seein' things that I may never see again, and I can't wait to get on the road again.
-- Willie Nelson

#Travel #Waiting #May

Songwriters might write cynical, world-wise lyrics and constantly talk about money, but most of us are downright naive when it comes to business.
-- Willie Nelson

#Wise #Writing #Cynical

I like myself better when I'm writing regularly. ... I was influenced a lot by those around me-there was a lot of singing that went on in the cotton fields. ... I'm a country songwriter and we write cry-in-your-beer songs. That's what we do. Something that you can slow dance to...I never gave up on country music because I knew what I was doing was not that bad. ... Most of the stuff I've read about me has been true.
-- Willie Nelson

#Country #Song #Writing

You can't make a record if you ain't got nothin' to say.
-- Willie Nelson

#Records

Be careful what you dream: soon your dreams will be dreaming you.
-- Willie Nelson

#Dream #Be Careful #Careful

You could try to live monogamously. Good luck.
-- Willie Nelson

#Good Luck #Luck #Trying

If you really want to get along with somebody, let them be themselves.
-- Willie Nelson

#Want

Marijuana is like sex: If I don't do it every day I get a headache.
-- Willie Nelson

#Sex #Marijuana #Headache

I never pretended to have a great voice. It works and I can carry a tune. If you have a good song, that's about all that's required.
-- Willie Nelson

#Song #Voice #Singing

A lot of guns there's no need for civilians to own those those are for military
-- Willie Nelson

#Military #Gun #Needs

There are more serious problems in life than financial ones, and I’ve had a lot of those. I’ve been broke before, and will be again.
-- Willie Nelson

#Serious #Financial #Problem

Rather than trying to put an end to Eminem or some other rapper, politicians should think about why they're rapping. It's easier to try to censor some kid who's swearing about poverty than it is to stop the poverty.
-- Willie Nelson

#Rap #Kids #Thinking

When I was out in the bars drinking and fighting I was a little bit less of a peacemaker than I would be if I'd had a coupla hits of a joint and gone and laid down somewhere.
-- Willie Nelson

#Drinking #Fighting #Would Be

I started writing cheating songs when I was too young to have any idea what I was writing about - broken hearts and things like that. I just think it was something I already knew, something I had experienced in another lifetime.
-- Willie Nelson

#Song #Cheating #Heart

Anybody can be unhappy. We can all be hurt. You don't have to be poor to need something or somebody. Rednecks, hippies, misfits - we're all the same. Gay or straight? So what? It doesn't matter to me. We have to be concerned about other people, regardless.
-- Willie Nelson

#Hurt #Hippie #Gay

I don’t believe in adhering to any rules I don’t support and I didn’t vote for. To hell with what people think. Just be who you are and you’ll be happy.
-- Willie Nelson

#Believe #Thinking #People

If you've made your own hell, then only you have the power to escape it.
-- Willie Nelson

#Hell #Made

I'm drowning in whiskey river.
-- Willie Nelson

#Rivers #Alcohol #Drug

Love is like a dying ember, only memories remain.
-- Willie Nelson

#Love #Memories #Dying

I see this [biodiesel] as a way for the farmer to grow fuel and food and put him back in business again
-- Willie Nelson

#Fuel #Way #Energy