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

So let’s be honest with ourselves and not take ourselves too serious, and never condemn the other fellow for doing what we are doing every day, only in a different way.
—Will Rogers

The income tax has made liars out of more Americans than golf. Even when you make a tax form out on the level, you don’t know when it’s through if you are a crook or a martyr.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Golf, Taxation, Taxes

Golf is a wonderful exercise. You can stand on your feet for hours, watching somebody else putt
—Will Rogers
Topics: Golf

The nation is prosperous on the whole, but how much prosperity is there in a hole?
—Will Rogers
Topics: Debt

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

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

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

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

People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Anger

Things will get better—despite our efforts to improve them.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Improvement, Progress

All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that’s an alibi for my ignorance.
—Will Rogers
Topics: News, Ignorance

We can’t all be heroes, because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Appropriateness, Heroes, Heroes/Heroism, Success, Heroism, Failure, Aptness

People that pay for things never complain. It’s the guy you give something to that you can’t please.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Complaining, Business

I guess truth can hurt you worse in an election than about anything that can happen to you.
—Will Rogers

A difference of opinion is what makes horse racing and missionaries.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Opinion, Opinions

We always want the best man to win an election. Unfortunately, he never runs.
—Will Rogers

There is an awful lot of difference between reading something and actually seeing it, for you can never tell, till you see it, just how big a liar History is.
—Will Rogers
Topics: History

Rumor travels faster, but it don’t stay put as long as truth.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Gossip

I have always said that a conference was held for one reason only, to give everybody a chance to get sore at everybody else. Sometimes it takes two or three conferences to scare up a war, but generally one will do it.
—Will Rogers

Live so that you wouldn
—Will Rogers
Topics: Gossip

You’ve got to be an optimist to be a Democrat, and youve got to be a humorist to stay one.
—Will Rogers

Baseball is a skilled game. It’s America’s game—it, and high taxes
—Will Rogers
Topics: Baseball

Politics ain’t worrying this country one-tenth as much as where to find a parking space
—Will Rogers
Topics: Politics, Worry

I represent what is left of a vanishing race, and that is the pedestrian…. That I am still able to be here, I owe to a keen eye and a nimble pair of legs. But I know they’ll get me someday.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Driving

See where Congress passed a two billion dollar bill to relieve bankers’ mistakes. You can always count on us helping those who have lost part of their fortune, but our whole history records nary a case where the loan was for the man who had absolutely nothing. Our theory is to help only those who can get along, even if they don’t get a loan.
—Will Rogers

The trouble with our praying is, we just do it as a means of last resort.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Prayer

The more you read and observe about this politics thing, the more you’ve got to admit that each party’s worse than the other. The one that’s out always looks the best.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Politics

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

This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Government

One ad is worth more to a paper than forty editorials.
—Will Rogers
Topics: Advertising

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