Johnny Cash quotes:

You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.

Of emotions, of love, of breakup, of love and hate and death and dying, mama, apple pie, and the whole thing. It covers a lot of territory, country music does.

God's the final judge for Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash too. That's solely in the hands of God.

Sometimes I am two people. Johnny is the nice one. Cash causes all the trouble. They fight.

That was the big thing when I was growing up, singing on the radio. The extent of my dream was to sing on the radio station in Memphis. Even when I got out of the Air Force in 1954, I came right back to Memphis and started knocking on doors at the radio station.

I start a lot more songs than I finish, because I realize when I get into them, they're no good. I don't throw them away, I just put them away, store them, get them out of sight.

I read novels but I also read the Bible. And study it, you know? And the more I learn, the more excited I get.

My father was a man of love. He always loved me to death. He worked hard in the fields, but my father never hit me. Never. I don't ever remember a really cross, unkind word from my father.

When people ask me who my favorite country singer is, I say, 'You mean besides George Jones?'

My daddy left home when I was three and he didn't leave much to Ma and me, just this old guitar and an empty bottle of booze.

I was wearing black clothes almost from the beginning. I feel comfortable in black. I felt like black looked good onstage, that it was attractive, so I started wearing it all the time.

How well I have learned that there is no fence to sit on between heaven and hell. There is a deep, wide gulf, a chasm, and in that chasm is no place for any man.

I love songs about horses, railroads, land, Judgment Day, family, hard times, whiskey, courtship, marriage, adultery, separation, murder, war, prison, rambling, damnation, home, salvation, death, pride, humor, piety, rebellion, patriotism, larceny, determination, tragedy, rowdiness, heartbreak and love. And Mother. And God.

Everybody was wearing rhinestones, all those sparkly clothes, and cowboy boots. I decided to wear a black shirt and pants and see if I could get by with it. I did and I've worn black clothes ever since.

Success is having to worry about every damn thing in the world, except money.

Happiness is being at peace, being with loved ones, being comfortable...but most of all, it's having those loved ones.

The things that have always been important: to be a good man, to try to live my life the way God would have me, to turn it over to Him that His will might be worked in my life, to do my work without looking back, to give it all I've got, and to take pride in my work as an honest performer.

I'm very shy really. I spend a lot of time in my room alone reading or writing or watching television.

I'm thankful for the sea breeze that feels so good right now, and the scent of jasmine when the sun starts going down.

It makes me so mad that some people underestimate the wisdom and energy of young people. All because they don't look the way older folks think they should look. I'm working on a song about it. Maybe some of those closed minded people will realize long hair and tattoos don't mean they should be ignored. Close minded people are part of what's wrong with this world.

There's no way around grief and loss: you can dodge all you want, but sooner or later you just have to go into it, through it, and, hopefully, come out the other side. The world you find there will never be the same as the world you left.

I recently found myself going through a period of uncertainty about my future as a performer, my status as a personality, the believability of my Christian witness and the knowledge of God's will in my life. I felt a force bigger than myself saying, 'Lay back. Take it easy. Study hard. Read your bible. Think, write and keep your mouth shut for awhile.'

Gospel music was the thing that inspired me as a child growing up on a cotton farm, where work was drudgery and it was so hard that when I was in the field I sang all the time. Usually gospel songs because they lifted me up above that black dirt.

God gives us life and takes us away as He sees fit.

I like to sit on the front porch of an old cabin I built in the woods and just listen to the birds; I like to fish in the pond and I always throw the fish back.

So I simply don't buy the concept of "Generation X" as the "lost generation." I see too many good kids out there, kids who are ready and willing to do the right thing, just as Jack was. Their distractions are greater, though. There's no more simple life with simple choices for the young.

I wear black because I'm comfortable in it. But then in the summertime when it's hot I'm comfortable in light blue.

I'm so uncomfortable wearing colors in public. I really am. Even denim. If I've got a day off in a town, I want to go out for a walk I'll put on denim. But almost everything I've got the black on.

It's all fleeting. As fame is fleeting, so are all the trappings of fame fleeting. The money, the clothes, the furniture.

The beast in me Is caged by frail and fragile bars.

When I was a baby, my mama told me son, always be a good boy, don't ever play with guns. But I shot a man in Reno.

Gospel music is so ingrained into my bones. I can't do a concert without singing a gospel song. It's what I was raised on.

I just hope and pray I can die with my boots on.

I wore black because I liked it. I still do, and wearing it still means something to me. It's still my symbol of rebellion -- against a stagnant status quo, against our hypocritical houses of God, against people whose minds are closed to others' ideas.

Call him drunken Ira Hayes, he won't answer any more. Not the whiskey drinking Indian, nor the Marine that went to war.

No matter how much you've sinned, no matter how much you've stumbled, no matter how much you fall, no matter how far you've got from God, don't give up. You can still be redeemed. As someone says, keep the faith.

When I'm gone I'll be remembered as the workin' man who put his point across with a right hand full of knuckles.

I learn from my mistakes. It's a very painful way to learn, but without pain, the old saying is, there's no gain.

A person knows when it just seems to feel right to them. Listen to your heart.

It's like a novelist writing far out things. If it makes a point and makes sense, then people like to read that. But if it's off in left field and goes over the edge, you lose it. The same with musical talent, I think.

You've got to know your limitations. I don't know what your limitations are. I found out what mine were when I was twelve. I found out that there weren't too many limitations, if I did it my way.

San Quentin, may you rot and burn in hell. May your walls fall and may I live to tell.

There is a spiritual side to me that goes real deep, but I confess right up front that I'm the biggest sinner of them all.

You've got a song you're singing from your gut, you want that audience to feel it in their gut. And you've got to make them think that you're one of them sitting out there with them too. They've got to be able to relate to what you're doing.

I wear black for those who never read or listen to the words that Jesus said, about the road to happiness, through love and charity.

For you I know I'd even try to turn the tide.

Flesh and blood needs flesh and blood, and you're the one I need

He drank his first strong liquor then to calm his shaking hand, and tried to tell himself at last he had become a man.

God Ain't no stained glass window, cause he never keeps his window closed.

You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone.

I keep a close watch on this heart of mine I keep my eyes wide open all the time I keep the ends out for the tie that binds Because you're mine, I walk the line.

I expect my life to end pretty soon. You know, I'm 71 years old. I have great faith, though. I have unshakable faith.

When my wife died, I booked myself into the studio just to work, to occupy myself.

People call me wild. Not really though, I'm not. I guess I've never been normal, not what you call Establishment. I'm country.

If you aren't gonna say exactly how and what you feel, you might as well not say anything at all.

You have to be what you are. Whatever you are, you gotta be it.

We went down [Folsom Prison] and there's a rodeo at all these shows that the prisoners have there. And in between the rodeo things, they asked me to set up and do two or three songs. So that was what I did. I did "Folsom Prison Blues," which they thought was their song - you know? - and "I Walk The Line," "Hey Porter," "Cry, Cry, Cry." And then the word got around on the grapevine that Johnny Cash is all right and that you ought to see him.

There's a lot of things blamed on me that never happened. But then, there's a lot of things that I did that I never got caught at.

Life is rough so you gotta be tough.

I love the freedoms we got in this country, I appreciate your freedom to burn your flag if you want to, but I really appreciate my right to bear arms so I can shoot you if you try to burn mine.

Burn my Flag and I will shoot you........but I'll shoot you with a lot of love, like a good American

The Master of Lifes been good to me. He has given me strength to face past illnesses, and victory in the face of defeat. He has given me life and joy where other saw oblivion. He Has given new purpose to live for, new services to render and old wounds to heal. Life and love go on, let the music play.

it's good to know who hates you and it is good to be hated by the right people

Life and love go on, let the music play.

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down, Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town, I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime, But is there because he's a victim of the times. I wear the black for those who never read

A rose looks grey at midnight, but the flame is just asleep. And steel is strong because it knows the hammer and white heat.

I found out that there weren't too many limitations, if I did it my way.

You can ask the people around me. I don't give up. I don't give up... and it's not out of frustration and desperation that I say I don't give up. I don't give up because I don't give up. I don't believe in it.

I'm not really concerned about boundaries. I just follow my conscience and my heart. Follow your heart. That's what I do. Compassion is something I have a lot of, because I've been through a lot of pain in my life. Anybody who has suffered a lot of pain has a lot of compassion.

Until things are brighter.. I'm the man in black.

You miss a lot of opportunities by making mistakes, but that's part of it: knowing that you're not shut out forever, and that there's a goal you still can reach.

I wear my crown of thorns on my liars chair, full of broken thoughts I cannot repair, beneath the stain of time the feelings disappears. What have I become, my sweetest of friends?

Life is the question and life is the answer, and God is the reason and love is the way.

I have tried drugs and a little of everything else, and there is nothing in the world more soul-satisfying than having the kingdom of God building inside you and growing.

Loneliness is emptiness, but happiness is you.

The ones that you're calling wild are going to be the leaders in a little while.

There's unconditional love there. You hear that phrase a lot but it's real with me and her [June Carter]. She loves me in spite of everything, in spite of myself. She has saved my life more than once. She's always been there with her love, and it has certainly made me forget the pain for a long time, many times. When it gets dark and everybody's gone home and the lights are turned off, it's just me and her.

[Sam Phillips] laughed at me. I just didn't like the way I Walk The Line sounded to me. I didn't know I sounded that way. And I didn't like it. I don't know. But he said let's give it a chance, and it was just a few days until - that's all it took to take off.

Jesus will not fail me, I shall not be moved.

What have I become, my sweetest friend. Everyone I know goes away, in the end.

What I said, what are you [Rick Rubin] going to do with me that nobody else has been able to do to sell records with me?

The gospel of Christ must always be an open door with a welcome sign for all.

I kept talking to my producers at Columbia about recording one of those [prison] shows. So we went into Folsom on February 11, 1968, and recorded a show live.

Six foot six he stood on the ground He weighed two hundred and thirty-five pounds But I saw that giant of a man brought down To his knees by love

Life is --the way God has given it to me was just a platter-- a golden platter of life laid out there for me. Its been beautiful.

I'm not bitter. Why should I be bitter? I'm thrilled to death with life.

I am not a Christian artist, I am an artist who is a Christian.

All your life, you will be faced with a choice. You can choose love or hate"¦I choose love.

When I think about country music, I think about America.

As sure as God made black and white, what's done in the dark will be brought to the light.

The fire and excitement may be gone now that we don't go out there and sing them anymore, but the ring of fire still burns around you and I, keeping our love hotter than a pepper sprout.

I don't give up because I don't give up. I don't believe in it.

Everything I have and everything I do is now given completely to Jesus Christ.

I remember everything What have I become? My sweetest friend? E veryone I know goes away in the end You could have it all My empire of dirt I will let you down I will make you hurt.

Love is a burning thing and it makes a firey ring.

I had a song called "Folsom Prison Blues" that was a hit just before "I Walk The Line." And the people in Texas heard about it at the state prison and got to writing me letters asking me to come down there. So I responded and then the warden called me and asked if I would come down and do a show for the prisoners in Texas.

My father was a cotton farmer first and - but he didn't have any land or what land he had, he lost it in the Depression. So he worked as a woodman and cut pulpwood for the paper mills, rode the rails in boxcars going from one harvest to another to try to make a little money picking fruit or vegetables.

When I hear that whistle blowing, I hang my head and cry.

[My mother] called [my voice] the gift.

I've never been accused of a felony. I never spent time behind bars except for a few overnight jail times back in the Sixties. [But] I think there's a little bit of a criminal in all of us. Everybody's done something they don't want anybody to know about.

We'll all be equal under the grass, and God's got a heaven for country trash.

Id like to wear a rainbow every day, and tell the world that everything is o.k. But Ill try to carry off a little darkness on my back. Until things are brighter, Im the Man in Black.

They're powerful, those songs. At times they've been my only way back, the only door out of the dark, bad places the black dog calls home.

Help me, Jesus. I know what I am.

I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.

My arms are too short to box with God.

When you sing, you pray twice.

I haven't been familiar with hard work. It was no problem for me. But first I hitchhiked to Pontiac, Mich. and got a job working in Fisher Body making those 1951 Pontiacs.

I keep my eyes wide open all the time.

I don't like it, but I guess things happen that way.

He was removed from jail and placed in a place for the insensitive and insane.

When God forgave me, I figured I'd better do it too.

The beer and the wurst were wonderful, but I was dying to be back in the South, where the livin' was easy, where the fish were jumpin', where the cotton grew high.

All music comes from God.

Convicts are the best audience I ever played for.

Death and hell are never full, and neither are men's eyes.

Some gal would giggle and I'd get red, and some guy'd laugh and I'd bust his head. I tell ya, life ain't easy for a boy named Sue.

All your life, you will be faced with a choice. You can choose love positivity and gratitude that things aren't worse or hate negativity and bitterness that things aren't better ...I choose love positivity and gratitude that things aren't worse.

I knew I wanted to sing when I was a very small boy. When I was probably 4 years old. My mother played a guitar and I would sit with her and she would sing and I learned to sing along with her.

After about three lessons [my] voice teacher said, "Don't take voice lessons. Do it your way. You're a song stylist. Always do it your way."