Folklore Songs Quotes & Sayings

The crudest thing I've done as a teacher was to require students to write a national anthem for their country and sing it themselves. — Chris Van Allsburg

It was Stevenson, I think, who most notably that there are some places that simply demand a story should be told of them ...
After all, perhaps Stevenson had only half of the matter. It is true there are places which stir the mind to think that a story must be told about them. But there are also, I believe, places which have their story stored already, and want to tell this to us, through whatever powers they can; through our legends and lore, through our rumors, and our rites. By its whispering fields and its murmuring waters, by the wailing of its winds and the groaning of its stones, by what it chants in darkness and the songs it sings in light, each place must reach out to us, to tell us, tell us what it holds. ("The Axholme Toll") — Mark Valentine

My brothers used to call me Bob. They'd laugh at me, and I didn't get it. I'm 13 years old at the time, and then one day my brother's friend says, 'You know what Bob stands for? 'Booty on back.' You're fat.' Like my butt was so big I could reach for my wallet over my shoulder. And I broke down. — Michael Strahan

The crowding of children into insufficient, often squalid spaces seems an inexplicable anomaly in the United States. Images of spaciousness and majesty, of endless plains and soaring mountains, fill our folklore and our music and the anthems that our children sing. "This land is your land," they are told; and, in one of the patriotic songs that children truly love because it summons up so well the goodness and the optimism of the nation at its best, they sing of "good" and "brotherhood" "from sea to shining sea." It is a betrayal of the best things that we value when poor children are obliged to sing these songs in storerooms and coat closets. — Jonathan Kozol

I never retired. — Doris Day

Patria est communis omnium parens.
Our country is the common parent of all. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

We tend to suppress our anger against each other which ultimately leads to big quarrels some day. If two people have been naturally expressing their differences of opinion or having small arguments on regular basis, they will never have resentment or enmity of a lifetime. — Deep Trivedi

Every country in the world loved the folklore of the West
the music, the dress, the excitement, everything that was associated with the opening of a new territory. It took everybody out of their own little world. The cowboy lasted a hundred years, created more songs and prose and poetry than any other folk figure. The closest thing was the Japanese samurai. Now, I wonder who'll continue it. — John Wayne

It is now certain that the public does know. It is not so certain that the public does care. — G.K. Chesterton

A professional entertainer who allows himself to become known as a singer of folk songs is bound to have trouble with his conscience provided, of course, that he possesses one. As a performing artist, he will pride himself on timing and other techniques designed to keep the audience in his control [ ... ] his respect for genuine folklore reminds him that these changes, and these techniques, may give the audience a false picture of folk music. — Sam Hinton

Our country offers such great opportunities for us all. Unfortunately, too many hard-working citizens go day to day without enough food to eat. — Dennis Franz

But really Legrandin had no need to remind people so often that he belonged to another planet when all his uncontrollable impulses of anger or affability were governed by the desire to occupy a good position on this one. — Marcel Proust

If everyone could just live near the ocean, I think we'd all be happier. It's hard to be down about anything knee deep in the sand. — Crystal Woods

Once I found out how much an Off-Off-Broadway actor makes, I was whoring myself out the next day. — Rob Corddry

Pretty girls behave better when you ignore them. — Chetan Bhagat