110+ Johnny Cash Quotes On Death, Trust And June Coffee

Johnny Cash was an American musician and songwriter from Arkansas. He was known for his distinctive deep voice and his pioneering sound in the country music genre. He was also known for his activism and his music was often influenced by his faith and his struggles with addiction. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Johnny Cash on life, love, death.

Top 10 Johnny Cash Quotes

1. Loneliness is emptiness, but happiness is you.
2. If you aren't gonna say exactly how and what you feel, you might as well not say anything at all.
3. Life and love go on, let the music play.
4. There is a spiritual side to me that goes real deep, but I confess right up front that I'm the biggest sinner of them all.
5. Sometimes I am two people. Johnny is the nice one. Cash causes all the trouble. They fight.
6. I love the freedoms we got in this country, I appreciate your freedom to burn your flag if you want to, but I really appreciate my right to bear arms so I can shoot you if you try to burn mine.
7. How well I have learned that there is no fence to sit on between heaven and hell. There is a deep, wide gulf, a chasm, and in that chasm is no place for any man.
8. All your life, you will be faced with a choice. You can choose love or hate…I choose love.
9. My arms are too short to box with God.
10. Life is the question and life is the answer, and God is the reason and love is the way.

Johnny Cash Image Quotes

Life and love go on, let the music play. — Johnny Cash

My arms are too short to box with God. — Johnny Cash

Success is having to worry about every damn thing in the world, except money. — Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash Short Quotes

• Success is having to worry about every damn thing in the world, except money.
• When God forgave me, I figured I'd better do it too.
• Until things are brighter.. I'm the man in black.
• The beast in me Is caged by frail and fragile bars.
• A person knows when it just seems to feel right to them. Listen to your heart.
• For you I know I'd even try to turn the tide.
• I am not a Christian artist, I am an artist who is a Christian.
• God Ain't no stained glass window, cause he never keeps his window closed.
• Beneath the stains of time the feeling disappears, you are someone else I am still right here.
• I just hope and pray I can die with my boots on.

Johnny Cash Quotes About Life

All your life, you will be faced with a choice. You can choose love positivity and gratitude that things aren't worse or hate negativity and bitterness that things aren't better ...I choose love positivity and gratitude that things aren't worse. — Johnny Cash

You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. — Johnny Cash

The things that have always been important: to be a good man, to try to live my life the way God would have me, to turn it over to Him that His will might be worked in my life, to do my work without looking back, to give it all I've got, and to take pride in my work as an honest performer. — Johnny Cash

I love to go to the studio and stay there 10 or 12 hours a day. I love it. What is it? I don't know. It's life. — Johnny Cash

God gives us life and takes us away as He sees fit. — Johnny Cash

So I simply don't buy the concept of "Generation X" as the "lost generation." I see too many good kids out there, kids who are ready and willing to do the right thing, just as Jack was. Their distractions are greater, though. There's no more simple life with simple choices for the young. — Johnny Cash

Some gal would giggle and I'd get red, and some guy'd laugh and I'd bust his head. I tell ya, life ain't easy for a boy named Sue. — Johnny Cash

I expect my life to end pretty soon. You know, I'm 71 years old. I have great faith, though. I have unshakable faith. — Johnny Cash

[My father] did every kind of work imaginable from painting to shoveling to herding cattle. And he's always been such an inspiration to me because of the very kinds of things that he did and the kind of life he lived. — Johnny Cash

Life is - the way God has given it to me was just a platter - a golden platter of life laid out there for me. It's been beautiful. — Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash Quotes About Love

My father was a man of love. He always loved me to death. He worked hard in the fields, but my father never hit me. Never. I don't ever remember a really cross, unkind word from my father. — Johnny Cash

Oh, I'd love to wear a rainbow everyday, And tell the world that everything's okay, But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back, Till things are brighter, I'm the Man in Black. — Johnny Cash

Of emotions, of love, of breakup, of love and hate and death and dying, mama, apple pie, and the whole thing. It covers a lot of territory, country music does. — Johnny Cash

Because you're mine, I walk the line. — Johnny Cash

The fire and excitement may be gone now that we don't go out there and sing them anymore, but the ring of fire still burns around you and I, keeping our love hotter than a pepper sprout. — Johnny Cash

I wear black for those who never read or listen to the words that Jesus said, about the road to happiness, through love and charity. — Johnny Cash

I love Bob Dylan, I really do. I love his early work, I love the first time he plugged in electrically, I love his Christian albums, I love his other albums. — Johnny Cash

I always loved those songs. And with my high tenor, I thought I was pretty good - you know? - almost as good as Dennis Day. — Johnny Cash

I would take songs that I'd loved as a child and redo them in my mind for the new voice I had, the low voice. — Johnny Cash

Stop your ears and close your eyes and try to find the face of love. — Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash Quotes About Death

There's no way around grief and loss: you can dodge all you want, but sooner or later you just have to go into it, through it, and, hopefully, come out the other side. The world you find there will never be the same as the world you left. — Johnny Cash

We'll all be equal under the grass, and God's got a heaven for country trash. — Johnny Cash

He went up to heaven, located his dog. Not only that, but he rejoined his arm. — Johnny Cash

I'm not bitter. Why should I be bitter? I'm thrilled to death with life. — Johnny Cash

Death and hell are never full, and neither are men's eyes. — Johnny Cash

I'm thrilled to death with life. — Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash Quotes About Music

It's like a novelist writing far out things. If it makes a point and makes sense, then people like to read that. But if it's off in left field and goes over the edge, you lose it. The same with musical talent, I think. — Johnny Cash

Gospel music was the thing that inspired me as a child growing up on a cotton farm, where work was drudgery and it was so hard that when I was in the field I sang all the time. Usually gospel songs because they lifted me up above that black dirt. — Johnny Cash

Sam Phillips always encouraged me to do it my way, to use whatever other influences I wanted, but never to copy...if there hadn't been a Sam Phillips, I might still be working in a cotton field. — Johnny Cash

Gospel music is so ingrained into my bones. I can't do a concert without singing a gospel song. It's what I was raised on. — Johnny Cash

All music comes from God. — Johnny Cash

When I think about country music, I think about America. — Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash Quotes About Song

After about three lessons my voice teacher said, 'Don't take voice lessons. Do it your way. You're a song stylist. Always do it your way.' — Johnny Cash

You've got a song you're singing from your gut, you want that audience to feel it in their gut. And you've got to make them think that you're one of them sitting out there with them too. They've got to be able to relate to what you're doing. — Johnny Cash

I start a lot more songs than I finish, because I realize when I get into them, they're no good. I don't throw them away, I just put them away, store them, get them out of sight. — Johnny Cash

When I record somebody else's song, I have to make it my own or it doesn't feel right. I'll say to myself, I wrote this and he doesn't know it! — Johnny Cash

Every week, Dennis Day sang an old Irish folk song. And next day in the fields, I'd be singing that song if I was working in the fields. — Johnny Cash

I sang those old gospel songs for my mother, and she said, is that you? And I said, yes, ma'am. And she came over and put her arms around me and said, God's got his hands on you. — Johnny Cash

If I'm anything, I'm not a singer but I'm a song stylist. — Johnny Cash

I could wrap myself in the warm cocoon of a song and go anywhere. — Johnny Cash

I used to sing Bill Monroe songs. And I'd sing Dennis Day songs like songs that he sang on the Jack Benny show. — Johnny Cash

In the Air Force, I had an old Wilcox Gay recorder, and I used to hear guitar runs on that recorder going (vocalizing) like the chords on "I Walk The Line." And I always wanted to write a love song using that theme, that tune. — Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash Quotes About People

I wore black because I liked it. I still do, and wearing it still means something to me. It's still my symbol of rebellion -- against a stagnant status quo, against our hypocritical houses of God, against people whose minds are closed to others' ideas. — Johnny Cash

People call me wild. Not really though, I'm not. I guess I've never been normal, not what you call Establishment. I'm country. — Johnny Cash

Creative people have to be fed from the divine source. I have to get fed. I had to get filled up in order to pour out. — Johnny Cash

People ask me who is my favorite country artist. I say, you mean besides George Jones. — Johnny Cash

I knew that when I left there at the age of 18, I wouldn't be back. And it was common knowledge among all the people there that when you graduate from high school here, you go to college or go get a job or something and do it on your own. — Johnny Cash

It's good to believe in yourself, but there are people out there who can make or break you. — Johnny Cash

I love the young people. — Johnny Cash

You can ask the people around me. I don't give up. I don't give up. I don't give - and it's not out of frustration and desperation that I say I don't give up. I don't give up because I don't give up. I don't believe in it. — Johnny Cash

it's good to know who hates you and it is good to be hated by the right people — Johnny Cash

I've always explored various areas of society. And I love the young people. And I had an empathy for prisoners and did concerts for them back when I thought that it would make a difference - you know? - that they really were there to be rehabilitated. — Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash Quotes About Singing

That was the big thing when I was growing up, singing on the radio. The extent of my dream was to sing on the radio station in Memphis. Even when I got out of the Air Force in 1954, I came right back to Memphis and started knocking on doors at the radio station. — Johnny Cash

I knew I wanted to sing when I was a very small boy. When I was probably 4 years old. My mother played a guitar and I would sit with her and she would sing and I learned to sing along with her. — Johnny Cash

I think in my world of religion, you're called to preach or you don't preach. Called by God to preach. I never been ordained by God to preach the gospel. I have a calling, it's called to perform and sing. — Johnny Cash

My mother told me to keep on singing, and that kept me working through the cotton fields. She said God has his hand on you. You'll be singing for the world someday. — Johnny Cash

I say I'm not a singer, so that means I can't sing. But - doesn't it? — Johnny Cash

When you sing, you pray twice. — Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash Famous Quotes And Sayings

You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space. — Johnny Cash

Life and love go on, let the music play. — Johnny Cash

The Master of Lifes been good to me. He has given me strength to face past illnesses, and victory in the face of defeat. He has given me life and joy where other saw oblivion. He Has given new purpose to live for, new services to render and old wounds to heal. Life and love go on, let the music play. — Johnny Cash

My arms are too short to box with God. — Johnny Cash

I learn from my mistakes. It’s a very painful way to learn, but without pain, the old saying is, there’s no gain. — Johnny Cash

No matter how much you've sinned, no matter how much you've stumbled, no matter how much you fall, no matter how far you've got from God, don't give up. You can still be redeemed. As someone says, keep the faith. — Johnny Cash

I love songs about horses, railroads, land, Judgment Day, family, hard times, whiskey, courtship, marriage, adultery, separation, murder, war, prison, rambling, damnation, home, salvation, death, pride, humor, piety, rebellion, patriotism, larceny, determination, tragedy, rowdiness, heartbreak and love. And Mother. And God. — Johnny Cash

A rose looks grey at midnight, but the flame is just asleep. And steel is strong because it knows the hammer and white heat. — Johnny Cash

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down, Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town, I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime, But is there because he's a victim of the times. I wear the black for those who never read — Johnny Cash

I like to sit on the front porch of an old cabin I built in the woods and just listen to the birds; I like to fish in the pond and I always throw the fish back. — Johnny Cash

I have tried drugs and a little of everything else, and there is nothing in the world more soul-satisfying than having the kingdom of God building inside you and growing. — Johnny Cash

You've got to know your limitations. I don't know what your limitations are. I found out what mine were when I was twelve. I found out that there weren't too many limitations, if I did it my way. — Johnny Cash

It's all fleeting. As fame is fleeting, so are all the trappings of fame fleeting. The money, the clothes, the furniture. — Johnny Cash

I read novels but I also read the Bible. And study it, you know? And the more I learn, the more excited I get. — Johnny Cash

I was wearing black clothes almost from the beginning. I feel comfortable in black. I felt like black looked good onstage, that it was attractive, so I started wearing it all the time. — Johnny Cash

I'm very shy really. I spend a lot of time in my room alone reading or writing or watching television. — Johnny Cash

When I was a baby, my mama told me son, always be a good boy, don't ever play with guns. But I shot a man in Reno. — Johnny Cash

I wear black because I'm comfortable in it. But then in the summertime when it's hot I'm comfortable in light blue. — Johnny Cash

I keep a close watch on this heart of mine I keep my eyes wide open all the time I keep the ends out for the tie that binds Because you're mine, I walk the line. — Johnny Cash

It takes a real man to live for God-a lot more man than to live for the devil, you know? If you really want to live right these days, you gotta be tough. — Johnny Cash

I'm thankful for the sea breeze that feels so good right now, and the scent of jasmine when the sun starts going down. — Johnny Cash

Rick Rubin said, well, I don't know that we will sell records. He said, I would like you to go with me and sit in my living room with a guitar and two microphones and just sing to your heart's content everything you ever wanted to record. I said, that sounds good to me. So I did that. And day after day, three weeks, I sang for him. — Johnny Cash

The beer and the wurst were wonderful, but I was dying to be back in the South, where the livin' was easy, where the fish were jumpin', where the cotton grew high. — Johnny Cash

Come on boys, you must listen unto me, lay off the whiskey and let that cocaine be. — Johnny Cash

I kept talking to my producers at Columbia about recording one of those [prison] shows. So we went into Folsom on February 11, 1968, and recorded a show live. — Johnny Cash

Why me, Lord? What have I ever done to deserve even one of the blessings I've known? Why me, Lord? What did I ever do that was worth love from you and the kindness you've shown? Lord, help me, Jesus, I've wasted it so. Help me, Jesus. I know what I am. Now that I know that I've needed you so, help me, Jesus. My soul's in your hand. — Johnny Cash

I've never been accused of a felony. I never spent time behind bars except for a few overnight jail times back in the Sixties. [But] I think there's a little bit of a criminal in all of us. Everybody's done something they don't want anybody to know about. — Johnny Cash

I keep my eyes wide open all the time. — Johnny Cash

Prisoners are the greatest audience that an entertainer can perform to. — Johnny Cash

My daddy left home when I was three and he didn't leave much to Ma and me, just this old guitar and an empty bottle of booze. — Johnny Cash

Flesh and blood needs flesh and blood, and you're the one I need — Johnny Cash

Everybody was wearing rhinestones, all those sparkly clothes, and cowboy boots. I decided to wear a black shirt and pants and see if I could get by with it. I did and I've worn black clothes ever since. — Johnny Cash

I'm so uncomfortable wearing colors in public. I really am. Even denim. If I've got a day off in a town, I want to go out for a walk I'll put on denim. But almost everything I've got the black on. — Johnny Cash

Help me, Jesus. I know what I am. — Johnny Cash

He was removed from jail and placed in a place for the insensitive and insane. — Johnny Cash

[Sam Phillips] laughed at me. I just didn't like the way I Walk The Line sounded to me. I didn't know I sounded that way. And I didn't like it. I don't know. But he said let's give it a chance, and it was just a few days until - that's all it took to take off. — Johnny Cash

Deep in the heart of the infinite darkness, a tiny blue marble is spinning through space. Born in the splendor of God's holy vision, and sliding away like a tear down his face. — Johnny Cash

If you're going to be a Christian, you're going to change. You're going to lose some old friends, not because you want to, but because you need to. — Johnny Cash

I started to write the song. And I was in Gladewater, Texas, one night with Carl Perkins and I said, I've got a good idea for a song. And I sang him the first verse that I had written, and I said it's called "Because You're Mine." And he said, "I Walk The Line" is a better title, so I changed it to "I Walk The Line." — Johnny Cash

One day, I just decided I'm ready to go. So I went down with my guitar and sat on the front steps of Sam Phillips recording studio. — Johnny Cash

San Quentin, may you rot and burn in hell. May your walls fall and may I live to tell. — Johnny Cash

Being rich means you get to worry about everything except money. — Johnny Cash

So we raise her up every morning, we take her down every night, we don't let her touch the ground and we fold her up right. On second thought, I do like to brag 'cause I'm mighty proud of the Ragged Old Flag. — Johnny Cash

He drank his first strong liquor then to calm his shaking hand, and tried to tell himself at last he had become a man. — Johnny Cash

My father was a cotton farmer first and - but he didn't have any land or what land he had, he lost it in the Depression. So he worked as a woodman and cut pulpwood for the paper mills, rode the rails in boxcars going from one harvest to another to try to make a little money picking fruit or vegetables. — Johnny Cash

Call him drunken Ira Hayes, he won't answer any more. Not the whiskey drinking Indian, nor the Marine that went to war. — Johnny Cash

God's the final judge for Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash too. That's solely in the hands of God. — Johnny Cash

I did [picking cotton] from - until I was 18 years old, that is. Then I picked the guitar, and I've been picking it since. — Johnny Cash

My way of communicating with God as a boy (and often even now) was through the lyrics of a song. . . . So I didn't have the problem some people do who say, "I don't know how to pray." I used the songs to communicate with God. . . . To me, songs were the telephone to heaven, and I tied up the line quite a bit. — Johnny Cash

My mother was determined that I was going to leave the farm and do well in life. And she thought with the gift, I might be able to do that. So she took in washing. She got a washing machine in 1942 as soon as we got electricity and she took in washing. She washed the schoolteacher's clothes and anybody she could and sent me for singing lessons for $3 per lesson. — Johnny Cash

I developed a pretty unusual style, I think. — Johnny Cash

Take one fresh and tender kiss Add one stolen night of bliss One girl, one boy, some grief, some joy Memories are made of this. — Johnny Cash

I'm thankful for a pair of shoes that feel really good on my feet; I like my shoes. I'm thankful for the birds; I feel like they're singing just for me when I get up in the morning... Saying, 'Good morning, John. You made it, John.' I'm thankful for the sea breeze that feels so good right now, and the scent of jasmine when the sun starts going down. I'm thankful. — Johnny Cash

It was kind of a prodding myself to play I Walk The Line straight. — Johnny Cash

You're so heavenly minded, you're no earthly good. — Johnny Cash

Backstage at the Grand Ole Opry, I got on my knees and told her that I was going to marry her some day. We were both married to someone else at the time. ‘Ring Of Fire’—June and Merle Kilgore wrote that song for me-that’s the way our love affair was. We fell madly in love and we worked together all the time, toured together all the time, and when the tour was over we both had to go home to other people. It hurt. — Johnny Cash

Life Lessons by Johnny Cash

1. Johnny Cash was an American musician who taught us to always stay true to ourselves and our values, no matter what the cost. He was a man of conviction and integrity, and his music was a reflection of his own life experiences.
2. He also taught us to never give up, no matter how hard life may seem. Despite his struggles with addiction and depression, he continued to make music and inspire others.
3. Finally, he showed us the power of love and forgiveness. He was a man of faith and believed in the power of redemption, even when his own life seemed to be falling apart.