Ochs Quotes & Sayings

Jews with unconventional identities should not have to wrestle alone at the intersection where their tradition seems to clash with their integrity as loving human beings. Like Moses responding to the travail of his brothers (Ex. 2:11), a caring halachic Jewish community should respond seriously to the heartfelt appeal of our contemporary sisters. — Vanessa L Ochs

Show me a country where the bombs had to fallShow me the ruins of buildings so tallAnd I'll show you a young landWith many reasons whyThere but for fortune, go you or IYou or I. — Phil Ochs

Comfort his family with a telegram, we regret to inform you we lost a man, but we gave him the highest medal of the land. — Phil Ochs

I write all my own songs and they are just simple melodies with a lot of lyrics. They usually have to do with current events and what is going on in the news. You can call them topical songs, songs about the news, and then developing into more philosophical songs later. — Phil Ochs

The final story, the final chapter of western man, I believe, lies in Los Angeles. — Phil Ochs

Is there anybody here who thinks that following the orders takes away the blame Is there anybody here who wouldn't mind a murder by another name? — Phil Ochs

The fortunes of the entire world may well ride on the ability of young Americans to face the responsibilities of an old America gone mad. — Phil Ochs

Does defending liberalism leave you friendless and perhaps wondering about your breath? — Phil Ochs

I wasn't the greatest reporter in the world, but I wasn't starting at zero. — Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr.

Midlife crisis, it turns out, is much less about a loss of flesh and far more about a loss of innocence, the stripping-away of the illusion of choice and order. — Steve Ochs

'The New York Times' is inherent in what we are, but not worn as 'what we are'; it's important and crucial to all of us, but not something that was drilled in, in any specific ways. — Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr.

Beneath the greatest love lies a hurricane of hate. — Phil Ochs

Leaving America is like losing twenty pounds and finding a new girlfriend. — Phil Ochs

Maybe we should raise our voices, ask somebody why. But demonstrations are a drag, besides we're much too high. — Phil Ochs

Though I did not write about neurofeedback in detail, I trained in it, and learned an immense amount about changing the brain from these neurofeedback scientists and clinicians, in supervision, in courses or through their writings: John Finnick, Moshe Perl, Sebern Fisher, Ed Hamlin, Lynda Thompson, Michael Thompson, Len Ochs, and Jaclyn Gisburne. — Norman Doidge

She's staring down her desires, while they're staring down her dress. — Phil Ochs

You're not buying news when you buy The New York Times. You're buying judgment. — Arthur Ochs Sulzberger

So do your duty, boys, and join with prideServe your country in her suicideFind the flags so you can wave goodbyeBut just before the end even treason might be worth a tryThis country is too young to dieI declare the war is overIt's over, it's over. — Phil Ochs

Journalism's ultimate purpose is to inform the reader, to bring him each day a letter from home and never to permit the serving of special interests. — Arthur Ochs Sulzberger

If the great Phil Ochs were to rise from the dead today, he would probably be hailed as the new David Rovics. — Andy Kershaw

Well I've seen travel in many waysI've traveled in cars and old subwaysBut in Birmingham some people choseTo fly down the street from a fire hose.Doin' some hard travelin' ... from hydrants of plenty. — Phil Ochs

Oh you tell me that there's danger to the land you call your ownAnd you watch them build the war machine right beside your homeAnd you tell me that you're ready to go marchin' to the warI know you're set for fighting, but what are you fighting for? — Phil Ochs

Some people never get their feet on the ground, They're either sitting in a chair or theyre laying down ... — Phil Ochs

The only way to Cuba is with the CIA. — Phil Ochs

In such ugly times, the only true protest is beauty. — Phil Ochs

The painter paints his brushes blackThrough the canvas runs a crackPortrait of the pain never answers back. — Phil Ochs

America is two Mack trucks colliding on a superhighway because all the drivers are on amphetamines. — Phil Ochs

One good song with a message can bring a point more deeply to more people than a thousand rallies. — Phil Ochs

The yearning for study was always there. I loved to learn. I really enjoyed studying
history. Taking college classes was just something I wanted to do. It gave me such a
feeling of satisfaction. — Nola Ochs

More than print and ink, a newspaper is a collection of fierce individualists who somehow manage to perform the astounding daily miracle of merging their own personalities under the discipline of the deadline and retain the flavor of their own minds in print. — Arthur Ochs Sulzberger

So good to be alive when the eulogies are read. — Phil Ochs

I like Hitler, jolly jolly Hitler. — Phil Ochs

The glory that was Lincoln's never died when he was slain. — Phil Ochs

In the courtroom, watch the balance of the scalesIf the price is right, there's time for more appealsThe strings are pulled, the switch is stayedThe finest lawyers fees are paidAnd a rich man never died upon the chair — Phil Ochs

Mother Goose is on the loose, stealing lines from Lenny Bruce. — Phil Ochs

It will be my earnest aim that The New York Times give the news, all the news, in concise and attractive form, in language that is permissible in good society, and give it as early if not earlier, than it can be learned through any other reliable medium; to give the news impartially, without fear or favor, regardless of party, sect, or interest involved; to make of the columns of The New York Times a forum for the consideration of all questions of public importance, and to that end to invite intelligent discussion from all shades of opinion. — Adolph Ochs

Evil is done in hopes that evil surrenders, but the deeds of the devil are burned too deep in the embers, and world of hunger in vengeance will always remember. — Phil Ochs

If you don't occasionally make a mistake, you aren't trying hard enough. — Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr.

Then about 12 years ago it dawned on me that folk music - the music of Woody Guthrie and Phil Ochs, early Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Pete Seeger - could be as heavy as anything that comes through a Marshall stack. The combination of three chords and the right lyrical couplet can be as heavy as anything in the Metallica catalogue. — Tom Morello

Only as strong as our love for this land, only as tall as we stand. — Phil Ochs

Even though you can't expect to defeat the absurdity of the world, you must make that attempt. — Phil Ochs

In dread fear of sentimentality, another thing true is not said-that for its staff the paper is a source of pride and, I do believe, an object of affection and-yes, love. — Arthur Ochs Sulzberger

Love is a rainbow curving down from the sky, falling crystals of color, shades of warm that never die. — Phil Ochs

I wonder who I left behind on the other side of fame. — Phil Ochs

Step outside the guidelines of the official umpires and make your own rules and your own reality. — Phil Ochs

Show me the prison, Show me the jail, Show me the prisoner whose life has gone stale. And I'll show you a young man with so many reasons why And there, but for fortune, go you or I. — Phil Ochs

A protest song is a song
that's so specific that you
cannot mistake it for bullshit — Phil Ochs

I don't think leadership demands 'yes' or 'no' answers; I think leadership is providing the forum for making the right decision, which doesn't demand unanimity. — Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr.

The only possibility in the United States for a humane society would be a revolution with Elvis Presley as leader. — Phil Ochs

I am interested in politics but have stayed away from writing overtly political songs, or message songs, because I find it difficult to discuss politics intelligently in a 4-minute song. But I am finding there are ways to get bits and pieces of political thought across without preaching that the people have the power or we shall not be moved. Of course these sentiments have their place too - I'm not knocking Phil Ochs - but that's a different kind of music, songs to play at rallies, not to achieve a state of bliss. — Dean Wareham

success is an enemy to the losers of the day — Phil Ochs

I'm gonna give all I've got to giveCross my heart, and I hope to live. — Phil Ochs

Call it peace or call it treason / call it love or call it reason / but I ain't marching anymore — Phil Ochs

God isn't dead--he's just missing in action. — Phil Ochs

When they show the destruction of society on color TV, I want to be able to look out over Los Angeles and make sure they get it right. — Phil Ochs

Advertising in the final analysis should be news. If it is not news it is worthless. — Adolph Ochs

One legged veterans will greet the dawn, and they're whistling marches as they mow the lawn, and the gargoyles on sit and grieve. — Phil Ochs

To make your spiritual yearning public, I thought, was to announce that you were wounded. To turn deeply into religion was to admit that your own resources were so weak you had to resort to magic and miracle cures for healing. To acquire faith was to mobilize the powers of an overly active imagination. — Vanessa L Ochs

I always found myself more drawn to each religious milieu than I would have anticipated, but in time, a ghoulish threat of being absorbed in alien territory always sent me retreating to the blander and safer ground of home. — Vanessa L Ochs

Are you going away with no word of farewell? Will there be not a trace left behind? Well I could have loved you better, didn't mean to be unkind. You know that was the last thing on my mind. — Phil Ochs

Maybe a deal was possible earlier. And maybe, in retrospect, looking back, you could say this was a moment you could have jumped on. If so, shame on us. I tend to think not. — Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr.

If you ever get a war without blood and gore, well, I'll be the first to go. — Phil Ochs

Anybody who claims to read the entire paper every day is either the world's fastest reader or the world's biggest liar. — Arthur Ochs Sulzberger

You can do right or you can do what you are told. And the prize of the victory will belong to the bold. — Phil Ochs

But our land is still troubled by men who have to hate. They twist away our freedom, and they twist away our fate. Fear is their weapon, and treason is their cry. We can stop them if we try. — Phil Ochs

Is a newspaper prints a sex crime, it's smut, but when The New York Times prints it, it's a sociological study.
[Adolph S. Ochs - Publisher New York Times] — Adolph S. Ochs

God help the troubadour who tries to be a star. The more that you try to find success, the more that you will fail. — Phil Ochs

In contrast to earlier textually-focused studies, recent scholarship on worship also highlights diversity and change. Projects to create new rituals and to redesign familiar ones, particularly in ways that make them more fluid and open-ended, have been a hallmark of much Western religious life since the 1960s.7 To take one example within Judaism, some couples now personalize or customize the traditional huppah or canopy beneath which they are married. In some instances, guests decorate a panel of cloth, and meet before the ceremony to offer the bride and groom their encouragement and advice, and join the pieces together. Vanessa Ochs characterizes this as part of a broader, explicit drive 'to personalize and to create community' within contemporary Judaism. — Melanie J. Wright

The truest protest is beauty. — Phil Ochs

In every political community there are varying shades of political opinion. One of the shadiest of these is the liberals. An outspoken group on many subjects. Ten degrees to the left of center in good times. Ten degrees to the right of center if it affects them personally. Here, then, is a lesson in safe logic. — Phil Ochs

Everyone knew that girls who admitted to liking girls stopped being whatever they were before and became a cross between a lumberjack and a punk-goth-anarchist.
- Adena Galinksy, USA (p. 38) — Robyn Ochs

If White men were not complaining, it would be an indication we weren't succeeding and making the inroads that we are. — Arthur Ochs Sulzberger

The people who carried the burden, who marked in strange field in search of an answer, and ended their journeys an unwilling hero. — Phil Ochs

In the state of Mississippi, Many Years Ago, a boy of 14 years got a taste of Southern law. — Phil Ochs

It's always the old to lead us to the war. It's always the young to fall. — Phil Ochs

I knew what the sanctified life was not. Not a life filled with more rituals, more scrupulously observed. Not more praying. Not becoming a better person, being more charitable, more concerned with everyone else's pains. Sanctifying had something to do with a sense of constant wonder - feeling gratitude and finding significance everywhere, in every action, relationship and object. — Vanessa L Ochs

I love genealogical research. That's the reason I bought my first computer years
ago to put my genealogy records on the computer. I've always enjoyed tracing family
history. — Nola Ochs

And if there's any hope for America, it lies in a revolution, and if there's any hope for a revolution in America, it lies in getting Elvis Presley to become Che Guevara. — Phil Ochs

The Defense Department's plan to ban newspaper reporters from pool coverage of military operations is incredible. It reveals the administration to be out of touch with journalism, reality and the First Amendment. — Arthur Ochs Sulzberger

You can do what's right, or you can do what you are told. — Phil Ochs

People will help you do almost anything if you want to do it badly enough. The desire has to be intense, but I would encourage people to search their desires, to pick out one, and then get out and do it! — Nola Ochs

And I won't be laughing at the lies when I'm goneAnd I can't question how or when or why when I'm goneCan't live proud enough to die when I'm goneSo I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here. — Phil Ochs

I can spare a dime, brother, but in these morally inflationary times, a dime goes a lot farther if it's demanding work rather than adding to the indignity of relief. — Phil Ochs

I never set out to do anything unusual or newsworthy. I just like to
study and learn, and I've always been that way. — Nola Ochs

I don't dwell on my age. It might limit what I can do. As long as I have my mind and health, it's just a number. — Nola Ochs

I heard Pete Seeger records when I was a kid. I saw Bob Dylan when I was about 12. The first song I ever learned to play was a song by Phil Ochs. — Ketch Secor

In the town of Bethlehem many years ago, a man got religion and he changed the status quo. — Phil Ochs

I give thanks every day for each new day that the Lord allows me to live and enjoy life to the fullest. — Nola Ochs

David Carr was one of the most gifted journalists who has ever worked at The New York Times, — Arthur Ochs Sulzberger

There is an urgent need for Americans to look deeply into themselves and their actions, and musical poetry is perhaps the most effective mirror available. Every newspaper headline is a potential song. — Phil Ochs

It is wrong to expect a reward for your struggles. The reward is the act of struggle itself, not what you win. Even though you can't expect to defeat the absurdity of the world, you must make that attempt. That's morality, that's religion. That's art. That's life. — Phil Ochs