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Will Rogers was born in 1879 in the area known as Indian Territory, which is now part of Oklahoma. He was an Entertainer and a humorist and traveled the world. In that time, he made 71 films and wrote over 4,000 nationally syndicated paper columns. The quotes from Will Rogers are classic and timely even today.
Let’s Find Quotes From Will Rogers
Why Are Will Rogers’s Quotes So Famous?
By the 1930s, Will Rogers was hugely popular in the United States for his political wit, and he was one of the highest-paid Hollywood film stars. He tragically died in 1935 with well-known Aviator Wiley Post when their small customized airplane crashed in a Northern Alaskan Lake.
One of the most endearing qualities of Will Rogers was his endless supply of notable quotes. For example, he penned the term, “ I never met a man I didn’t like,” and he even provided an Epitaph for his own gravestone he said, “When I die my Epitaph or whatever you call those signs on gravestones is going to read, “I joked about every prominent man of my time, but I never met a man I didn’t like.” I’m so proud of it that I can hardly wait to die so it can be carved.”
Will Rogers was a noted writer and commentator; his favorite topic was politics. In 1928, he even ran his own presidential campaign. It was a funny one, and it was a mock campaign he ran as a bunk-less candidate and the Anti-Bunk Party. He even noted, “I belong to no organized party. I am a Democrat.”
Here are some of Will Roger’s most famous quotes on politics.
Asked what issues would motivate voters? he said, “Prohibition of what’s on your hip is bound to be in your mind.”
Asked what does a farmer need? His answer is, “It’s obvious he needs a punch in the jaw if he believes that either of the parties cared a damn about him after the election.”
He was asked if voters can be fooled.? He said, “Darn tooting. Of all the bunk handed out during the campaign, the biggest one of all is to try to complement the knowledge of the voter.”
Finally, he was asked what the ugly campaign rumors are and he Stoicaaly replied, “Don’t worry, the things they whisper aren’t as bad as what they say out loud.” Will Rodgers was a man ahead of his time.
The Most Notable Will Rogers Quotes
Will Rogers was only 56 when he died in an Alaskan plane crash. However, his long career involved vaudeville, writing, movies, and thousands of newspaper columns. This led to numerous Will Rogers quotes that are still applicable to these times. Here are a few of them.
“I have Indian blood in me. I have just enough white blood for you to question my honesty!”
“If they weren’t in Congress, why, they would be doing something else against us that might be even worse.”
“If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging.”
“Even though you are on the right track – you will get run over if you just sit there.”
“Our foreign dealings are an open book — generally, a checkbook.”
“Too many people spend money they haven’t earned to buy things they don’t want to impress people they don’t like.”
“Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.”
“Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.”
“Worrying is like paying on a debt that may never come due.”
“Everything is funny, as long as it’s happening to somebody else.”
“Don’t gamble; take all your savings and buy some good stock and hold it till it goes up, then sell it. If it doesn’t go up, don’t buy it.”
“Last year we said, ‘Things can’t go on like this,’ and they didn’t, they got worse.”
“What the country needs is dirtier fingernails and cleaner minds.”
“Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.”
“The farmer has to be an optimist, or he wouldn’t still be a farmer.”
“If you want to be successful, it’s just this simple. Know what you are doing. Love what you are doing. And believe in what you are doing.”
“A man only learns in two ways, one by reading, and the other by association with smarter people.”
“Never let yesterday use up too much of today.”
“Make crime pay. Become a lawyer.”
“About all I can say for the United States Senate is that it opens with a prayer and closes with an investigation.”
“If you ever injected truth into politics, you have no politics.”
“People’s minds are changed through observation and not through argument.”
“The best way out of a difficulty is through it.”
“The more you observe politics, the more you’ve got to admit that each party is worse than the other.”
“On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government for four years, no matter what it does.”
“Never miss a good chance to shut up.”
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went.”
“The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces.”
“The short memories of the American voters is what keeps our politicians in office.”
“I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.”
“We are the first nation in the history of the world to go to the poor house in an automobile.“
“I remember when being liberal meant being generous with your own money.”
“Alexander Hamilton started the U.S. Treasury with nothing — and that was the closest our country has ever been to being even.”
The Tragic Death of Will Rodgers and Willy Post
Wiley Post and his close buddy, noted humorist and famous culture icon Will Rogers, died in a plane crash at Point Barrow, Alaska, on August 15, 1935. With the possible exception of Charles Lindbergh, no other American aviator at the time was as well-known as Wiley Post. Rogers was widely seen as the country’s most skilled social critic. Their demise severely influenced the two remarkable forces in American culture during the Great Depression — aviation and movies.
The Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun
There is a Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun atop Cheyenne Mountain. Nearly 8,000 feet above sea level, it is the highest point on the island. It offers a panoramic view of Colorado Springs and the surrounding area from atop Cheyenne Mountain.
In a two-part commemoration, Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun was named. The first is dedicated to Will Rogers, an actor, philosopher, and humorist who died tragically in an aircraft crash in 1935. The second is a tribute to the sun, which illuminates the tower’s sharp angles each morning and evening.
The Shrine, which stood 114 feet tall and was made of Cheyenne Mountain granite quarried 700 feet away from the construction site, was finished in 1937. It’s held together miraculously without the use of nails or wood. The tower was constructed with almost 200,000 pounds of steel and 30 wagonloads of cement.
Related Will Rogers Quotes and Other History Reading
- Alexis de Tocqueville on the Saginaw Trail
- Film Review: To Keep the Light
- Bay City 1908
- Largest Protest Marches in the United States
