Before 1936

Will Rogers wrote:
~ It's a great country but you cant live in it for nothing.
~ You are going to need sales taxes, both Federal and State income tax, and a lot of other kinds. It's a great country, but you can't live in it for nothing.
~ People are wonderful in their generosity if they just know the cause is there.
~ The moment a fellow gets into the Chamber of Commerce, he quits mowing his own lawn.
~ Great artist say that the most beautiful thing in the world is a baby. Well the next is an old lady,every wrinkle is a picture.
~ Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.
~ There is nothing so easy as denouncing, it don't tack much to see that something is wrong, but it does take some eyesight to see what will put it right again.
~ A fanatic is always the fellow that is on the opposite side.
~ A man can fool you with his mind, and his soul, and his heart, but if you follow his feet you will pretty near find out where he is going. (My favorite of the day.)

W.R. Quotes

~ Wars will never be a success until you have a referee and until they announce before they start just what they are for.

~Nations will give up their lives (even cheer about it). They will give up their money in order to give up their lives, but to ask one to give up their trade to prevent war, well, that has never been done.

~ When you get into trouble five thousand miles from home you've got to have been looking for it.

~ It takes quite a sense of humor for these people to understand us shaking hands with one hand and shooting with the other.

~Here we go again! America is running true to form, fixing some other country's business for 'em just as we always do. We mean well, but will wind up in wrong as usual.

~ A tax paid on the day you buy is not as tough as asking for it the next year when you are broke.

IMHO, Will Rogers Is An Important Part Of Our History

More W.R. quotes: (I don't believe that they are a precise description of the world, but I do enjoy most of them.)

~ When the big nations quit meddling then the world will have peace.

~ I don't care how little your country is, you got a right to run it like you want to.

~ If Wall Street paid a tax on every "game" they run, we would get enough revenue to run the government on.

~ (if there is) one thing we do worse than any other nation, it is try and manage someone else's affairs.

~ Nations are just like individuals, lend them money and you lose their friendship.

~ We would never understand why Mexico wasn't crazy about us, we have always had their goodwill, oil, coffee, and minerals at heart.

~ You can take a sob story and a stick of candy and lead America right off into the dead sea.

~ Headlines in the paper read "Europe Criticizes U.S." If memory serves me right we haven't complimented them lately ourselves.

~ I have a scheme for stopping war, it's this -- No nation is allowed to enter a war till they have paid for the last one.

~ Well, they finally stopped us from sending the Marines to every war that we could hear of. They are having on in Afghanistan, the thing will be over before Congress can pronounce it, much less find out where it is located.

More Will Rogers Quotes

Mostly about our government:
~ I like to make jokes and kid about the Senators. They are a never ending source of amusement, amazement, and discouragement. But the rascals, when you meet 'em They are mighty nice fellows. It must be something in the office that makes them so ornery sometimes. What you see what they do official, you want to shoot 'em. But when he looks at you and grins so innocently, you kinder want to kiss him.

(Remember, he was writing this stuff in the late 20s and early 30s)

~ Shrewdness in public life all over the world is always honored, while honesty in public men is generally attributed to dumbness and seldom rewarded.

~ The Democrats are having a lot of fun exposing the Republican campaign corruption, but they would have a lot more fun if they knew where they could lay their hands on some of it themselves for next November.

~ So much money is being spent on the campaigns that I doubt if either man, as good as they are, are worth what it will cost to elect them.

~ There is one rule that works in every calamity. Be it pestilence, war, or famine. the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The poor even help arrange it.

~ Big business don't go broke any more. The minute it looks bad for them, they combine with something else and issue more stock.

~ This open-door stuff is a lot of hooey, any door is only open to those that have the best product at the cheapest money.

Will Rogers Quoted

The following writings by Will Rogers look to be related to government and politics.

~ It's going to be hard to make an issue of corruption. It's like the poor. It's always been with us.

~ We cuss the law makers, but I notice that we are always perfectly willing to share in any of the sums of money that they might distribute.

~ ... people so excited over this election that they think the President has something to do with running this government.

~ A president should hold office six years with no re-election. Stop this thing of a President hsving to lower his dignity and go trooping around asking for voters to keep him another term. Six years give him enough time to do something. Then pay the man, when he goes out, one-half his salary for life.

Google Will Rogers

Speaking of politics Will Rogers wrote:


~ It takes nerve to be a Democrat, but it takes money to be a Republican.


~ The Republican platform promises to do better. I don't think they have done so bad. Everyone's broke but them.


~ Republicans take care of big money, for big money takes care of them.


~ I hope some of the men with the most votes will be elected.


~ You've got to admit that each party is worse than the other. The one that is out always looks better.


~ Republicans want a man who can lend dignity to the office. Democrats want a man who will lend some money.

Will Rogers

 I don't know whether Will Rogers was a Republican or a Democrat, a Conservative or a Liberal. I do know that he considered himself a political man. I also know he is famed for saying, "I never met a man I didn't like."


I do know that he was so well liked that radio networks were silenced for half an hour to observe his death. More than 50,000 people walked past his open casket. His statue was placed in our capitol so that he could "Keep an eye on Congress."


He was proud of of his ties to the Cherokee Nation and knew what that people had suffered in the Civil War.


He once wrote, "You can be killed just as dead in n unjustified war as you can in one protecting your own home." I don't remember the context, but it still sounds true to me.