My definition of country music is really pretty simple. It’s when someone sings about their life and what they know, from an authentic place.

It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.

Life would be tolerable but for its amusements.

Europe has what we do not have yet, a sense of the mysterious and inexorable limits of life, a sense, in a word, of tragedy. And we have what they sorely need: a sense of life’s possibilities.

The great end of life is not knowledge but action.

If you only believe that you’re an artist when you have a big advance in your pocket and a single coming out, I would say that’s quite soulless. You have to have a sense of your own greatness and your own ability from a very deep place inside you. I am the one with the litmus test in my hands of what people need to hear next.

I’ve always done whatever I want and always been exactly who I am.

After your death you will be what you were before your birth.

Man weeps to think that he will die so soon; woman, that she was born so long ago.

It may be, it just may be, that life as we know it with its humanity is more unique than many have thought.

If a man or woman is born ten years sooner or later, their whole aspect and performance shall be different.

The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.

I can write a song in about an hour if it’s a simple country song.

My writing is jagged and harsh, I want it to remain that way; I don’t want it smoothed out.

Getting older is no problem. You just have to live long enough.

And no, we don’t know where it will lead. We just know there’s something much bigger than any of us here.

If you want to get each individual’s honest opinion, you don’t want that opinion to be influenced by others who are present, much less allow a group to coordinate what they are going to say.

Simplicity is a key to avoiding complication. Part of the definition of simplicity is ‚not complex or complicated; sincere.‘

Darn the wheel of the world! Why must it continually turn over? Where is the reverse gear?

I do believe in God. But you won’t find me visiting temples every now and then. I believe in self-realization. Peace of mind matters a lot to me. What’s the point in doing something just for the sake of it? I’d rather do something I like doing as long as I’m being true to myself.

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.

Misfortune seldom intrudes upon the wise man; his greatest and highest interests are directed by reason throughout the course of life.

When a team takes ownership of its problems, the problem gets solved. It is true on the battlefield, it is true in business, and it is true in life.

I’ve been afraid of people playing their life away with too many toys.

When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control. Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike.

I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.

Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.

I write from my soul. This is the reason that critics don’t hurt me, because it is me. If it was not me, if I was pretending to be someone else, then this could unbalance my world, but I know who I am.

Live your life while you have it. Life is a splendid gift. There is nothing small in it. Far the greatest things grow by God’s law out of the smallest. But to live your life, you must discipline it.

In that film, the man and the part met. As far as I’m concerned, that part is Greg’s for life. I’ve had many, many offers to turn it into musicals, into TV or stage plays, but I’ve always refused.

Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.

Children make your life important.

And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.

My philosophy in life is, Decide what you want to do. You have to have something to hope for.

I’d rather tell you how I really feel.

Only those are fit to live who are not afraid to die.

The truth is I love being alive. And I love feeling free. So if I can’t have those things then I feel like a caged animal and I’d rather not be in a cage. I’d rather be dead. And it’s real simple. And I think it’s not that uncommon.

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.

Getting money is not all a man’s business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.

It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other.

It’s not easy to define poetry.

Life is an unanswered question, but let’s still believe in the dignity and importance of the question.

A person who is truly authentic doesn’t need to play a role in life, we think, but can simply be him – or herself.

People think, because we’re young, we aren’t complex, but that’s not true. We deal with life and love and broken hearts in the same way a woman a few years older might.

Die, v.: To stop sinning suddenly.

I still live, I still think: I still have to live, for I still have to think.

Seventy percent of success in life is showing up.

Life is an ordeal, albeit an exciting one, but I wouldn’t trade it for the good old days of poverty and obscurity.

One secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.

What’s the greater risk? Letting go of what people think – or letting go of how I feel, what I believe, and who I am?

Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most important thing in life is to know when to forego an advantage.

Life in abundance comes only through great love.

We’re all insecure, aren’t we? I’m not walking around like I’m macho man or anything.

In my father’s generation, the product was 80 percent of what you were putting into the world, and your personal life was 20 percent. It now seems that 80 percent of the product I put out is silly, made-up stories and what I’m wearing.

I don’t really have a gimmick or a ‚thing.‘ I’m one of the few artists who gets to be himself every day.

I argue thee that love is life. And life hath immortality.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.

There are more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible that in any profane history.

The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion because if a mother can kill her own child, what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me? There is nothing between.

Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.

Chance is an element of life. What I try to do is study what I call the mechanics of reality as carefully as I can.