Merle Quotes & Sayings

All humans at some time experience injustice, assault, disqualification, invasion and betrayal. No person is completely shielded. We need not trace our family trees very far back or study for long what life was like for our forbears to uncover humanity's abusiveness. The inherited scars of our multigenerational families exist in our family systems as we know them today. The abuse of the past often exists as the shame of today, and the shame is perpetuated through our patterns of interaction. — Merle A. Fossum

I enjoy the videos with the sound off, where you can look at the belly buttons and everything. Really some pretty girls, but I don't know about the music. — Merle Haggard

I overheard a young man once saying to his wife, "I can't control you. That's the problem and it's been the problem ever since day one!" And then I heard her answer him and heard her terrible voice. "No!" she said. "The problem isn't that you can't control me, the problem is that you're trying to. Why don't you stop worrying about controlling me and start worrying about controlling yourself? — Merle Shain

I went to Brooklyn College and met this beautiful Jewish girl named Merle, with dark hair, exotic looking and brilliant. So we got married and had three children. — Dominic Chianese

The records in the house I really remember were, well, Glen Campbell's 'Wichita Lineman' and 'Galveston.' Even as a kid, I knew these songs were glorious. My dad also had records by Merle Haggard, Charley Pride, Waylon Jennings, and then there was also the Eagles and Don Henley. Anything Texas, which includes Don Henley, was big. — Keith Urban

Our strength is in our dreams, and those who do not dare to dream damn themselves. — Merle Shain

No, it's not love, but it's not bad. — Merle Haggard

The Bowery was a place that would let us do original songs - not just covers - but we would have to work for tips, so we learned how to work an audience. In order to keep our jobs, we had to keep people happy, so that meant playing the latest Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ Top or Merle Haggard. — Randy Owen

But who would rush at a benighted man, and give him two black eyes for being blind? — Merle Shain

I don't think there's ever been a friendly divorce. — Merle Haggard

We are all persons courtesy of someone else, and since we need others to perceive us in order to experience ourselves, it is very hard to like yourself when those nearest you seem to doubt your worth. And when those around you don't see you as you want to see yourself, it is only too easy to lose the way and start auditioning instead for them. — Merle Shain

Feelings take you into uncharted territory from time to time it's true, but you almost always benefit from the journey one way or the other. We tend to think of the rational as a higher order, but it is the emotional that marks our lives. — Merle Shain

When I grew up there wasn't air-conditioning or anything of that nature, and this old car had a wall thickness of about ten inches. So we had a little warmer house in the winter and a little cooler in the summer. — Merle Haggard

No, I had a back injury early on in my life. — Merle Haggard

My 10 year old son likes it. He's trying to play guitar and everything. He likes that kind of music. — Merle Haggard

It takes great generosity to accept generosity. — Merle Shain

I like to stretch myself and push the envelope, so anything that's new or different or not of my daily routine, I am so for. — Merle Dandridge

It was like a curse. He was her antidote. She was his poison. — Claire Merle

The day you spend hoping, the day you spend waiting, the day you spend in despair, is a day in your life as much as the tomorrow you hope for, but which may never come, so betting today on tomorrow is always a bad bet. — Merle Shain

Love is short, forgetting is long, and understanding longer still. — Merle Shain

One can never change the past, only the hold it has on you, and while nothing in your life is reversible, you can reverse it nevertheless. — Merle Shain

Guitar playing is very important to me. It's like golf to some other people; it's important to me that I play good. — Merle Haggard

The act is unjustifiable that either begs for a blessing, or, having succeeded gives no thanksgiving. — Merle Shain

You can tell a lot about what a man lacks by watching what he is cynical about, and many of us are cynical about love. — Merle Shain

The only thing that I miss lately in all music is somebody that will put out a melody that you can whistle. It doesn't seem like there's anything happening like that. — Merle Haggard

Belief in a higher power was a form of psychosis. — Claire Merle

I listen to Lil Wayne, and then I listen to Merle Haggard. — Tyler Farr

The older I get, the clearer it becomes to me that no one is cheated in this world, unless it's by himself. — Merle Shain

There's been periods of broadcasts in the past where you could see all ages of entertainers, ranging from George Burns to Shirley Temple. That's not the condition now. — Merle Haggard

If there are no endings, there are no beginnings and you see no new lands, so for everything that's lost, there is usually something gained. — Merle Shain

I heard that "discretion is the better part of valor" from someone. Dunno exactly what that means but if it means not gettin' my fool haed blowed off then I'm all for it. -- Merle Johnson (Chicago Chase) — R.L. Kiser

I think my brand of country music is that's been influenced by not just the rough-stock rodeo side or Ted Nugent's "let's get crazy style", but also the stand-up and sing style's like George Strait and Merle Haggard, and also the wild side of Chris Ledoux — Cody Johnson

I listen more to music when I'm on my computer. I'm into the latest YouTube thing. I'm a nanosecond kind of listener, but if I'm driving I would be listening to a Merle Haggard box set. It's a weird experience listening to 'Working Man Blues' by Merle Haggard and cruising around in a Porsche. — Jason McCoy

The thing that bothers me the most is the recklessness and greed of the local ranchers, who run too many cattle back here, choking with waste the creek that runs through my property. There's certain times of day that the cowboys like to send them turds down the river. Them f**kers piss me off. if you gotta mess up the ecology of the world in order to raise a bunch of cows, well eat somethin else. I'm not a fan of the cowboys. — Merle Haggard

Everybody likes Johnny Cash. I think the sad part of it is his health is givin' him problems. — Merle Haggard

I didn't refuse often enough. — Henry James

And there's some Latino music I like, and some reggae music. — Merle Haggard

A great man may be the personification and type of the epoch for which God destines him, but he is never its creator. — Jean-Henri Merle D'Aubigne

The answer doesn't lie in learning how to protect ourselves from life-it lies in learning how to become strong enough to let a bit more of it in. — Merle Shain

Everyone has his burden. What counts is how you carry it. — Merle Miller

The Board would like to come back and see you tomorrow, Ariana,' she mimicked. 'Any more questions?'
'Yes,' she answered in the Warden's Irish accent, 'I'd just like to know why I'm such an arsehole. — Claire Merle

There's a rumor that there may be an attempt at organizing a possible script for a series on my life, which, when you look at my police record, you'd have to have more than one hour to tell the story. — Merle Haggard

In 1960, when I came out of prison as an ex-convict, I had more freedom under parolee supervision than there's available ... in America right now. — Merle Haggard

Marriage is supposed to do everything, like Duz, which is more than half its problem. It is said to save us, define us, give us purpose, keep us from loneliness, and incidentally balance our diet and wash our socks, and when it doesn't, we get divorced. — Merle Shain

There's two kind of cherries, and two kind of fairies, and two kind of mothers I'm told. — Merle Haggard

There are some decisions in life that only you can make. — Merle Shain

Life is like fording a river, stepping from one slippery stone to another, and you must rejoice every time you don't lose your balance, and learn to laugh at all the times you do. — Merle Shain

One can't run in a park without a dog or make angels in the snow without a child and there are things one can't do without a lover, so the loss of the lover is like an amputation and the patient goes into shock. — Merle Shain

Read about some squirrelly guy who claims that he just don't believe in fighting, and I wonder how long the rest of us can count on being free. — Merle Haggard

I think I'm most proud of my family right now. I'm more into that then I've ever been. It also gives a new area to draw from in creativity with my songs. — Merle Haggard

Girls gave sex to get love and boys gave love to get sex and conning girls was the favorite indoor sport. — Merle Shain

And I think it's safe to say that the single very impressive figure to me was Merle Haggard. — Warren Zevon

Timber and relationships are fragile. All it takes is one spark to destroy either of them. — Steven Merle Scott

At my age, I don't buy but a half a loaf of bread, you know? — Merle Haggard

Compassion is the thing that leads you gently back to yourself. — Merle Shain

It takes a lot of mulch, love does, to create a froth. — Merle Shain

The job of a friend is not to decide what should be done, not to run interference or pick up the slack. The job of a friend is to understand, and to supply energy and hope, and in doing so to keep those they value on their feet a little longer, so that they can fight another round and grow strong in themselves. — Merle Shain

I think it was Tommy who told me, 'When your song is called 'XYZ' or whatever, every line has got to make sense against your title.' He showed me little methods of proving to yourself whether the line belongs, and ways of finding out whether you were able to get more out of a line if you tried. — Merle Haggard

95% of the album is my writing, by choice, because it seems to be what the distributors want. — Merle Haggard

I can't really say why everyone loves Bob Wills' music, but I have yet to meet a person who didn't like it. — Merle Haggard

I've got two families. — Merle Haggard

It's been said that Bill Gates has come up with something that'll be released in December that's gonna put a lid on counterfeiting. If that's a fact then it's really interesting to own your own product - with all the potential methods of downloading. — Merle Haggard

The act of choosing whether or not to have a child is often an act of love, and always an act of survival. — Merle Hoffman

I've had mentors who were kind of the troubadour singer-songwriters, like Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and Neil Young, and that's just what I've always liked - people who would talk real honestly about their lives and their circumstance. — Jewel

There were two choices in life. Survive or succumb. And most people weren't even conscious of the path they chose. Because they chose for all the wrong reasons. Love, principles, dreams, desire. The world hadn't changed. It had always been survival of the fittest. — Claire Merle

My second wife Bonnie Owens and I worked together after we divorced for a period of maybe 20 years. And I managed to stay friends with another wife. And then there's one that I don't mess with. Everybody's got one of those. — Merle Haggard

I'm just writin' about my little ol' love affair. — Merle Haggard

Each of us is a seed, a silent promise, and it is always Spring. — Merle Shain

You think back to Tele players, and James Burton was the one who started it all. He inspired Roy Nichols (guitar for Merle Haggard & the Strangers), Don Rich (guitar for Buck Owens & the Buckaroos), and guys like that to push the envelope and expand on that sound ... I really identify with that kind of thinking ... those guys to me are the reason why any of us do this.. — Brad Paisley

Evolution is a laughing matter for anybody that's got a rational mind. — Merle Haggard

I really like Alan Jackson, in Country Music. I think he's really very, very talented along with George Jones, and Merle Haggard, the same old favorites. — Tanya Tucker

Some men are more perfect than others. — Merle Shain

And then, of course, there's a couple that claim to be, but I haven't done any DNA tests or anything. — Merle Haggard

Keep your opinions to yourself. I think it's important that I stay neutral on politics and remain hard to understand. I don't want to be pigeonholed as conservative, liberal, independent or anything. I back the man for the things the man believes in, not whether it says "R" or "D" down there beside his name. — Merle Haggard

We marry to grow up, to escape our parents and to inherit our share of the world, not knowing who we are and who we will become, so it is left to marriage to make it clear which ones of us are growing in the same directions and which are ships meant to have passed in the night. — Merle Shain

You cannot demand your rights, civil or otherwise, if you are unwilling to say what you are. — Merle Miller

Before the Beatles and yesterday, when a man could still work and still would. — Merle Haggard

The dream of romantic love is taken more seriously in North America than it is anywhere else in the world, which is why we believe in fidelity and why we believe in infidelity as well. It is also, of course, what makes our divorce rate as high as it is. Falling in love at first sight and instant gratification are part of the world in which we live, so there are people who believe adamantly in fidelity. They just don't believe in it for long. — Merle Shain

There are no perfect men of course, but some are more perfect than others, and we can use all of those we can get. — Merle Shain

I had some surgery on my feet, which has helped my back some. — Merle Haggard

To be part of what you're singing about is somewhat painful. You've got to climb inside it all. — Merle Haggard

Sex deepens love and love deepens sex, so physical intimacy transforms everything and playing with it is playing with fire. — Merle Shain

I worked really hard in college, and I came out a completely different person and performer than when I went in. I did the work, and I found a craft. — Merle Dandridge

Daryl Dixon: [about Merle] Toughest asshole I ever met, my brother. Feed him a hammer, he'd crap out nails. — The Walking Dead

Loving can cost a lot but not loving always costs more, and those who fear to love often find that want of love is an emptiness that robs the joy from life. — Merle Shain

Who deserves more credit than the wife of a coal miner? Mother was one. — Merle Travis

We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee, we don't take trips on LSD. We don't burn our draft cards down on Main Street, we like living right and free. — Merle Haggard

Who ask
don't get
who don't ask
don't want
who don't want
don't get
who don't get
don't care — Merle Hodge

Let us reject this decree. In matters of conscience the majority has no power.
Merle d'Aubigne, History of the Reformation, b. 13, ch. 5. — Ellen G. White

Lay in the weeds and wait, and when you get your chance to say something, say something good. — Merle Haggard

My father and brothers were coal miners. — Merle Travis

It's cool when your husband starts to sing some old Merle Haggard song and I can pop in with a harmony and it doesn't sound too bad. — Trisha Yearwood

Most of the time when "universal" is used, it's just a euphamism for "white"; white themes, white significance, white culture. — Merle Woo

Friends are like windows through which you see out into the world and back into yourself. If you don't have friends you see much less than you otherwise might. — Merle Shain

I have heard stories that it was love at first sight for both of us, that we disappeared to a guest room at Merle's house, had our meals sent up, and didn't emerge for several days. This is absolutely untrue. I would never behave like that as a guest in someone's home. Carlos and I went to my beach house. — Martha Graham

Until we can all present ourselves to the world in our completeness, as fully and beautifully as we see ourselves naked in our bedrooms, we are not free. — Merle Woo

I was 48-years old before anybody talked me into it for medicinal purposes, instead of some of these drugs that they give you that will lead you to heart surgery and things of that nature. — Merle Haggard

No marriage is one person's failure any more than it's one person's success, so it works best to see a marriage that has ended simply as something that didn't work out. — Merle Shain

I'm going to get out of here,' she said.
'That's the spirit.' Tamsin sighed, letting go of her last tears.
'Next time they take me to the tanks,' Ana continued, 'I'll make sure they drown me.'
'OK, it's official. You're mad. — Claire Merle

I have known the fruits of strikes. The bitter and the sweet. Hunger and music. — Merle Travis