Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Will Rogers (American Humorist, Actor)

Will Rogers (1879–1935,) fully William Penn Adair Rogers, was an American actor, entertainer, rancher, and humorist. Celebrated for pithy and homespun humor and cracker-barrel philosophy, he came to personify the wisdom of the common person.

Born the son of a rancher in Oolagah, Indian Territory (Oklahoma,) Rogers traveled to Buenos Aires and Johannesburg. He was employed as a ranch hand and cowpuncher. He used these skills as a vaudeville headliner with his rope twirling and homespun humor from 1905, appearing at the St Louis World’s Fair (1904) and in the musical The Girl Rangers (1907.)

Rogers’s first Broadway performance was in The Wall Street Girl (1912,) and he later became a regular attraction at the Ziegfeld Follies (1917–18.) By this time, his act had expanded to include homespun philosophy, wisecracking and rustic ruminations. He made several silent films, including Laughing Bill Hyde (1918,) Jubilo (1919,) and Doubling for Romeo (1921.)

Rogers returned to Broadway in Three Cheers (1928) and made They Had to See Paris (1929; his first sound film,) State Fair (1933,) Judge Priest (1934,) and Steamboat Round the Bend (1935.)

Rogers wrote a syndicated column for The New York Times 1922–35, wrote articles for the Saturday Evening Post and made frequent radio broadcasts. He died in a plane crash with aviator Wiley Post in Alaska.

Rogers’s notable works include The Cowboy Philosopher at the Peace Conference (1919,) Political Follies (1929,) and The Autobiography of Will Rogers (1949; compiled by from his writings and sayings by Donald Day.)

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Will Rogers

One revolution is just like one cocktail, it just gets you organized for the next.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Revolution, Revolutions

Things ain’t what they used to be and probably never was.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Realism, Just for Fun

Lobbyists have more offices in Washington than the President. You see, the President only tells Congress what they should do. Lobbyists tell’em what they will do.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Government

Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.
—Will Rogers
Topics: People, Money

We are sure living in a peculiar time. You get more for not working than you will for working, and more for not raising a hog than for raising it.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Welfare

This country has gotten where it is in spite of politics, not by the aid of it. That we have carried as much political bunk as we have and still survived shows we are a super nation.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Politicians, Politics

I guess there is nothing that will get your mind off everything like golf. I have never been depressed enough to take up the game, but they say you get so sore at yourself you forget to hate your enemies.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Golf

That’s one thing about a little education. It spoils you for actual work. The more you know the more you think somebody owes you a living.
—Will Rogers

There should be one day when there is open season on senators.
—Will Rogers

The short memories of American voters is what keeps our politicians in office.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Memory

A comedian can only last ’til he either takes himself serious or his audience takes him serious.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Audiences

Why not go out on a limb? That’s where the fruit is.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Courage, Risk

I like to hear a man talk about himself because then I never hear anything, but good.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Praise

You can’t say that civilization don’t advance… for in every war they kill you a new way.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Civilization, War, Progress

Here it is, a New Year. We got to make some resolutions, as well as interest and tax payments in this joyful season. It’s the start of a New Year of trials and tribulations, and if everybody that does anything gets caught, it will be mostly trials.
—Will Rogers

Being a hero is about the shortest lived profession on earth.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Heroes, Heroes/Heroism, Heroism

Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Government

There ain’t nothing but one thing wrong with every one of us, and that’s selfishness.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Service

The minute you read something that you can’t understand, you can almost be sure that it was drawn up by a lawyer.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Law, Lawyers

My ancestors didn’t come over on the Mayflower, but they were there to meet the boat.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Ancestors, Ancestry

There is no argument in the world that carries the hatred that a relioious belief does. The more learned a man is, the less consideration he has for another man’s belief.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Belief

It’s not what you pay a man, but what he costs you that counts.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Worth

Everybody is ignorant—only on different subjects.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Ignorance, One liners

There’s no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Government

There is two things that can disrupt business in this country. One is War, and the other is a meeting of the Federal Reserve Bank.
—Will Rogers

You know horses are smarter than people. You never heard of a horse going broke betting on people.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Horses

Communism to me is one-third practice and two-thirds explanation.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Communism, Explanation, Socialism

A debt is just as hard for a Government to pay as it is for an individual. No debt ever comes due at a good time. Borrowing is the only thing that seems handy all the time.
—Will Rogers

Nothing makes a man broad-minded like adversity.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Open-mindedness

The reason political party platforms are so long is that when you straddle anything it takes a long time to explain it.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Politics

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