I feel that my whole life is a contribution.

Again, I say I will be glad to tell what songs I have ever sung, because singing is my business.

I fought for peace in the fifties.

Down through the centuries, this trick has been tried by various establishments throughout the world. They force people to get involved in the kind of examination that has only one aim and that is to stamp out dissent.

I like to say I'm more conservative than Goldwater. He just wanted to turn the clock back to when there was no income tax.

Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't.

Some of my ancestors were religious dissenters who came to America over three hundred years ago. Others were abolitionists in New England in the eighteen forties and fifties.

Historically, I believe I was correct in refusing to answer their questions.

I still call myself a communist, because communism is no more what Russia made of it than Christianity is what the churches make of it.

One of the things I'm most proud of about my country is the fact that we did lick McCarthyism back in the fifties.

I have sung for Americans of every political persuasion, and I am proud that I never refuse to sing to an audience, no matter what religion or color of their skin, or situation in life.

But I decline to say who has ever listened to them, who has written them, or other people who have sung them.

Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't.

I am saying voluntarily that I have sung for almost every religious group in the country, from Jewish and Catholic, and Presbyterian and Holy Rollers and Revival Churches.

I have sung in hobo jungles, and I have sung for the Rockefellers, and I am proud that I have never refused to sing for anybody.

I am not going to answer any questions as to my association, my philosophical or religious beliefs or my political beliefs, or how I voted in any election, or any of these private affairs.

I want to turn the clock back to when people lived in small villages and took care of each other.

I feel that my whole life is a contribution.

I decline to discuss, under compulsion, where I have sung, and who has sung my songs, and who else has sung with me, and the people I have known.

I believe that my choosing my present course I do no dishonor to them, or to those who may come after me.

I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked, especially under such compulsion as this. I would be very glad to tell you my life if you want to hear of it.

I love my country very dearly, and I greatly resent the implication that some of the places that I have sung and some of the people that I have known, and some of my opinions, whether they are religious or philosophical, make me less of an American.

According to my definition of God, I'm not an atheist. Because I think God is everything. Whenever I open my eyes, I'm looking at God. Whenever I'm listening to something, I'm listening to God.

Being generous of spirit is a wonderful way to live.

Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get if you don't.

I am saying voluntarily that I have sung for almost every religious group in the country, from Jewish and Catholic, and Presbyterian and Holy Rollers and Revival Churches, and I do this voluntarily.

I came along and was a teenager in the Depression, and nobody had jobs. So I went out hitchhiking, when I met a man named Woody Guthrie. He was the single biggest part of my education.

I came from an intellectual family. Most were doctors, preachers, teachers, businessmen. My grandfather was a small businessman. His father was an abolitionist doctor, and his father was an immigrant from Germany.

I keep reminding people that an editorial in rhyme is not a song. A good song makes you laugh, it makes you cry, it makes you think.

I live in the country, so I get a fair amount of exercise. We heat our house with wood, so I split wood. We also live on a steep hill, and I have to rake and put in cross-stitches to keep the road from washing out when there's a big rain.

I'm still a communist in the sense that I don't believe the world will survive with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer - I think that the pressures will get so tremendous that the social contract will just come apart.

I've found that festivals are a relatively painless way to meet people and make a few points that need making, without having to hit them over the head with too many speeches.

If I've got a talent, it's for picking the right song at the right time for the right audience. And I can always get people to sing with me.

If there's something wrong, speak up!

It's a very important thing to learn to talk to people you disagree with.

Songs won't save the planet, but neither will books or speeches.

When you play the 12-string guitar, you spend half your life tuning the instrument and the other half playing it out of tune.

Food is one of the great organizing tools.

A good song reminds us what were fighting for.

The easiest way to avoid wrong notes is to never open your mouth and sing. What a mistake that would be.

Participation - that's what's gonna save the human race.

Plagiarism is basic to all culture.

It is better to have struggled and lost than never to have struggled at all.

Roosevelt's magic lay in one facet of his personality: He knew how to take the risk. No other man in public life I knew could so readily take the challenge of the new.

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.

Art teaches nothing, except the significance of life.

If it came to saving the life of one priest or sacrificing the life of an entire congregation, the church would save the life of the priest. Which is backwards, of course.

Work is the meat of life, pleasure the dessert.

All literary men are Red Sox fans - to be a Yankee fan in a literate society is to endanger your life.