Merle Haggard Quotes That Are country, honky-tonk and outlaw

I'll tell you what the public likes more than anything, it's the most rare commodity in the world - honesty.

Momma tried to raise me better, but her pleading I denied, and that leaves only me to blame, cause Momma tried.

Keep your opinions to yourself. I think it's important that I stay neutral on politics and remain hard to understand. I don't want to be pigeonholed as conservative, liberal, independent or anything. I back the man for the things the man believes in, not whether it says "R" or "D" down there beside his name.

The only thing that I miss lately in all music is somebody that will put out a melody that you can whistle. It doesn't seem like there's anything happening like that.

Willie Nelson's the one who told me the reason it costs so much to get divorced is because it's worth it.

If I hear another line dance song I think I'm going to puke.

A house without love ain't a home.

Hey, hey, the working man, the working man like me.

I ain't never been on welfare, that's one place I won't be.

I enjoy the videos with the sound off, where you can look at the belly buttons and everything. Really some pretty girls, but I don't know about the music.

There's one thing I never did do, and that was stink.

It's a long way from Graceland across Jordan to the Promised Land, but Jesus finally came to lead him home.

In 1960, when I came out of prison as an ex-convict, I had more freedom under parolee supervision than there's available... in America right now.

Sometimes if you get 'em too drunk they don't pay no attention to what you're doin' anyways, so you might as well just do old songs. But if you get one that's paying attention, sometimes we'll do some new material.

There's two kind of cherries, and two kind of fairies, and two kind of mothers I'm told.

Read about some squirrelly guy who claims that he just don't believe in fighting, and I wonder how long the rest of us can count on being free.

The Captain just gave us our orders, and Mom we must carry them through.

I'll finish this letter first chance I get, but for now I'll just say I love you.

I think it was Tommy who told me, 'When your song is called 'XYZ' or whatever, every line has got to make sense against your title.' He showed me little methods of proving to yourself whether the line belongs, and ways of finding out whether you were able to get more out of a line if you tried.

Heaven knows that alcohol is the worst thing in the world, but it's debatable whether cocaine is worse than caffeine or whether it's the same thing and they just changed the name.

Guitar playing is very important to me.

It's like golf to some other people; it's important to me that I play good.

We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee, we don't take trips on LSD.

We don't burn our draft cards down on Main Street, we like living right and free.

Back when the country was strong, back before Elvis and before the Vietnam war came along.

When I grew up there wasn't air-conditioning or anything of that nature, and this old car had a wall thickness of about ten inches. So we had a little warmer house in the winter and a little cooler in the summer.

I'm proud to be an Oakie from Muskogee, a place where even squares can have a ball. We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse and white lightning's still the biggest thrill of all.

In my life there were a lot of situations where I could have been killed or some officer might have been killed chasing me, a lot of things could be different. Now, you know that's experience you can't buy. And it's there in my rearview mirror and I can refer to it in my writing. I have the experience to talk about things some people only imagine.

I'm just writin' about my little ol' love affair.

I probably wouldn't even be here now if it weren't for chiropractic

The one true friend I thought I'd found, tonight the bottle let me down.

There's a rumor that there may be an attempt at organizing a possible script for a series on my life, which, when you look at my police record, you'd have to have more than one hour to tell the story.

Diana Krall knocks me out. I like jazz and I like her simple approach.

HAG Records, is a company that I've owned. I've had a couple of gospel releases on it. We developed a pretty good distribution setup there and we do have something to use in case they don't want to sign us.

It makes my wife mad, you know, she wants me to stay home all the time. But its what I've done all my life and I think when I quit doing it I'll probably go away pretty quick.

Everybody likes Johnny Cash. I think the sad part of it is his health is givin' him problems.

I was 48-years old before anybody talked me into it for medicinal purposes, instead of some of these drugs that they give you that will lead you to heart surgery and things of that nature.

The turn I made was not the one I planned. And I watched my social standing slip away from me, while I watched the bottle slowly take command.

My second wife Bonnie Owens and I worked together after we divorced for a period of maybe 20 years. And I managed to stay friends with another wife. And then there's one that I don't mess with. Everybody's got one of those.

At my age, I don't buy but a half a loaf of bread, you know?

My 10 year old son likes it. He's trying to play guitar and everything. He likes that kind of music.

Faith is the only way we're going to make it. None of us are smart enough to do it on our own.

Despite of all my Sunday learnin', toward the bad I kept turning.

I haven't had any problems with my back since I got the foot surgery.

I don't think there's ever been a friendly divorce.

No, it's not love, but it's not bad.

I've got two families.

We're bar room buddies and we're the best kind, nobody messes with that friend of mine. Chug-a-lug-a-lug-a-lugga, bar room buddy of mine.

Before the Beatles and yesterday, when a man could still work and still would.

Women are God's last creation. You suppose he's saying, "What should I do to follow this?" Well, it's really a head -scratcher. I think women are absolutely wonderful. I think this world is going to be governed by women.

We're turning into the society that is accepting the force-feed. I don't quite understand why we're going for the things we're going for. There's no process of elimination anymore in music. They have these grooming schools, these things, and they're turning out these clones, and the music is sounding so refined that it's not even interesting.

I think I'm most proud of my family right now. I'm more into that then I've ever been. It also gives a new area to draw from in creativity with my songs.

I think we have to have capital punishment, I think there has to be something to contain certain people. Those deterrents I think are necessary, especially in prison. You can threaten people for just so long, but they can flip you off and do what they want to; but not if they have to die. I hate it, though, the thought of the death penalty is terrible, but it's completely necessary.