28 quotes
When I'm not near the girl I love,
I love the girl I'm near.
Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly.
Birds fly over the rainbow,
Why then, oh why can't I?
I am one of the last of a small tribe of troubadours, who still believe that life is a beautiful and exciting journey with a purpose and grace which are well worth singing about.
Look, look, look to the rainbow
Follow it over the hill and stream
Look, look, look to the rainbow
Follow the fellow who follows a dream.
My heart's prepared for aching
The moment you take wing.
But not, my friend, for breaking
While there's another spring.
Rhymes for the Irreverent (1965)
Once I built a railroad, I made it run,
made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad; now it's done.
Brother, can you spare a dime?
When the idle poor
Become the idle rich
You'll never know
just who is who
or who is which.
Say, its only a paper moon
Sailing over a cardboard sea
But it wouldn't be make-believe
If you believed in me.
It's Only a Paper Moon (1933)
The Lord made Adam, the Lord made Eve, he made ‘em both a little bit naive.
To let a fool kiss you is stupid,
To let a kiss fool you is worse.
My heart is like the willow
That bends, but never breaks.
It sighs when summer jilts her,
It sings when April wakes.
Rhymes for the Irreverent (1965)
Life is short, short, brother!
Ain't it the truth?
And there is no other
Ain't it the truth?
You gotta rock that rainbow while you still got your youth!
Oh! Ain't it the solid truth?
No matter how high or great the throne,
What sits on it is the same as your own.
The Americans (1970)
WHERE and WHEN
Are lost in space.
THERE and THEN
Do not embrace.
So before we disappear
Come sweet NOW and kiss the HERE.
Somewhere over the rainbow,
Way up high
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby.
Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true.
Without your love
It's a honky-tonk parade
Without your love
It's a melody played in a penny arcade. It's a Barnum and Bailey world
Just as phony as it can be
But it wouldn't be make-believe
If you believed in me.
It's Only a Paper Moon (1933)
No matter how much I probe and prod,
I cannot quite believe in God;
But oh, I hope to God that He
Unswervingly believes in me.
Rhymes for the Irreverent (1965)
As the writer of the lyric of the song ‘God’s Country’, I am outraged by the suggestion that somehow I am connected with, believe in, or am sympathetic with Communist or totalitarian philosophy.
Letter to the House Un-American Activities Committee (1950)
And only God who makes the tree
Also makes the fools like me. But only fools like me, you see,
Can make a God, who makes a tree.
Rhymes for the Irreverent (1965)
How are things in Glocca Morra?
Is that little brook still leaping there?
Does it still run down to Donny cove?
Through Killybegs, Kilkerry and Kildare?