Willie Nelson quotes:

Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results.

Freedom is control in your own life. I have more control now than in the past, and I'm learning the value of saying no. That's very important.

When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.

Freedom is control in your own life.

Well the country songs themselves are three-chord stories, ballads which are mostly sad. If you are already feeling sorry for yourself when you listen to them they will take you to an even sadder place.

Ninety-nine percent of the world's lovers are not with their first choice. That's what makes the jukebox play.

Three chords and the truth - that's what a country song is.

Well, it's a Bloody Mary morning, my baby left without warning.

I think it is just terrible and disgusting how everyone has treated Lance Armstrong, especially after what he achieved winning seven Tour de France races while on drugs......When I was on drugs I couldn't even find my bike.

I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana is an herb and a flower. God put it here. If He put it here and He wants it to grow, what gives the government the right to say that God is wrong?

I think Ray Charles did as much as anybody when he did his country music album. Ray Charles broke down borders and showed the similarities between country music and R&B.

Small family farmers are the only things that can save us because they take care of the land. Future farmers of America are going to be our heroes. Same with biodiesel, either way we need small family saustainable and organic farmers.

There's a great enthusiasm for good country music all over the world.

There's a freedom you begin to feel the closer you get to Austin, Texas.

I don't think any person has any special knowledge about what God has planned for me and you any more than me and you do.

If you got the money honey I got the time and when you run out of money honey I run out of time.

I don't remember Moses writing, 'Thou shalt not kill unless you think you have a good reason.

You want to be a good parent and you want to be a friend, and it's hard to be both. You have to balance it as well as you can.

We're still here trying to get the word out that 330 farmers are quitting every week.

I got along without you before I met you and I'll get along without you a long time after you're gone.

What has changed is that nothing has changed... that's what has made me more unhappy than everything else.

When you're singing, you're using extra muscles, and it requires a lot of exercise and breathing. You can't do that if you're a sissy. If I have any fitness advice for people, I'd tell them to sing more. It's good therapy, too.

Don't try to change anybody. And they should let you be yourself, 'You loved me when you met me, so let's keep going!'

The first time I got onstage was when I was about 5 years old. It was at a church social, and I had a poem to recite.

Writing books is fun because after I do a show for a couple hours, I'm in a bus for 22 hours. It's not hard for me to look out the window and tell a joke here and there.

Biodiesel seems to be the answer to a lot of our prayers. Not only can it help the U.S. economy, our unwanted dependence on foreign oil, and the gasping environment, it could also help the family farmers out of this tragic dilemma they have found themselves in through no fault of their own.

I see this [biodiesel] as a way for the farmer to grow fuel and food and put him back in business again

I text and email my friends and family a lot, but that's about the extent of my high-tech-etude.

I wanted to connect all people who are thinking about peace on Earth.

I think the best exercise that I do is singing for an hour-and-a-half out on the stage, because, yes, I use the lung, the biggest muscle in your body.

The biggest killer on the planet is stress and I still think the best medicine is and always has been cannabis.

I was influenced a lot by those around me - there was a lot of singing that went on in the cotton fields.

I never gave up on country music because I knew what I was doing was not that bad.

We are the same. There is no difference anywhere in the world. People are people. They laugh, cry, feel, and love, and music seems to be the commons denomination that brings us all together. Music cuts through all boundaries and goes right to the soul.

All I do is play music and golf - which one do you want me to give up?

My doctor tells me I should start slowing it down - but there are more old drunks than there are old doctors so let's all have another round.

As long as there's a few farmers out there, we'll keep fighting for them.

I learned some invaluable lessons in Nashville that apply to both farming and show business: Do not corner something you know is meaner than you; keep skunks of all kinds at a distance; if you forgive your enemies, it messes up their heads.

What goes around, comes around.

The fight to save family farms isn't just about farmers. It's about making sure that there is a safe and healthy food supply for all of us. It's about jobs, from Main Street to Wall Street. It's about a better America.

More and more people are finding out the benefits of it - hemp and marijuana. The more they delve into it and research it, the more they realize, Hey wait a minute, we should give this another look.

I live one day at a time, one day at a time. Yesterday's gone and tomorrow is blind, so I live one day at a time.

You can't hang a man for shooting a woman who was trying to steel his horse.

My wife actually got worried about my drinking so much regular milk, you know, so she got me into rice milk and now soy milk, which I greatly enjoy. A soy mocha's a fine thing.

I don't remember Moses writing, 'Thou shalt not kill.. unless you think you have a good reason.

My sister played the piano. She's two years older than me, and I always wanted to play something. So my grandmother got the guitar for me, and showed me a couple of chords to start off. And then I got me a book. Next thing you know, I was playing along with sister.

Nothing lasts forever, but old Fords and a natural stone.

I'm an old fashioned joint smoker ya know.

Air you breathe is bad for your lungs so you've got to careful and don't overdue any bad air. Too much pot, too much anything is not good. Your lung is a piece of flesh, a piece of bone. You can injure it.

There's so many things going on in the world, Babies dying. Mothers crying. How much oil is one human life worth. And what ever happened to peace on earth.

My first job was in a Bohemian polka band, the Rejcek family polka band in Abbott. The old man in the band had another blacksmith shop in Abbott, but he liked me. All he had was horns and drums, and I was set up over there with my little guitar with no amps or nothing. I would play as loud as I wanted to, and nobody could hear me.

I'm a romantic slob!

The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

My granddaddy died when I was about 6 years old, I think. And my grandmother took a job cooking in the school lunchroom. So she did great. She made $18 a week.

I believe that all roads lead to the same place - and that is wherever all roads lead to.

I'm drinking doubles now that you're running around single again.

I started out really young, when I was four, five, six, writing poems, before I could play an instrument. I was writing about things when I was eight or 10 years old that I hadn't lived long enough to experience. That's why I also believe in reincarnation, that we were put here with ideas to pass around.

We've already been reincarnated about a million times, maybe. It doesn't make sense any other way.

I think I'm basically the same guy I always was. Maybe I've learned, through experience, to rein in some of the anger and temper they say redheads normally have.

I like to stick with music I know I can play. I love classical, but I don't think I could ever play it. I'm just not qualified.

I'm from Texas, and one of the reasons I like Texas is because there's no one in control.

I'm not prejudiced in any way that I can think of. That's just not the guy I am.

Where I grew up, Bob Wills and his western swing was very popular. And western swing is not that far from jazz and blues.

I used to work in the cotton fields a lot when I was young. There were a lot of African Americans working out there. A lot of Mexicans - the blacks and the whites and the Mexicans, all out there singing, and it was like an opera in the cotton fields, and I can still hear it in the music that I write and play today.

I would like to see more airplay for all artists, no matter what age. I think there's a lot of money being spent toward the young guys, but a lot of the older guys are the ones who blazed the trail for those young guys.

A lot of country music is sad. I think most art comes out of poverty and hard times. It applies to music. Three chords and the truth - that's what a country song is. There is a lot of heartache in the world.

And as far as guitars go, I loved Jimmy Bryant and Speedy West's stuff.

I grew up across the street from, you know, the Villarias, which was a great Mexican family there. In fact, there was three houses right across the street from me. So, day and night, I listened to Mexican music, and I'm sure, you know, my guitar playing, singing, writing, whatever, has a lot of Mexican flavor there, but it comes natural.

Anybody can be unhappy. We can all be hurt. You don't have to be poor to need something or somebody. Rednecks, hippies, misfits - we're all the same. Gay or straight? So what? It doesn't matter to me. We have to be concerned about other people, regardless.

You could make any song sound creepy if you wanted. It's all about the inflection.

You know why divorces are so expensive? They're worth it.

Cruelty is all out of ignorance. If you knew what was in store for you, you wouldn't hurt anybody, because whatever you do comes back much more forceful than you send it out.

It doesn't hurt to feel sad from time to time.

I am not a pig farmer. The pigs had a great time, but I didn't make any money.

I think most art comes out of poverty and hard times.

I just enjoy both working and not working. And fortunately, I work enough where I get that out of my system, and then we take a few days off, take a rest.

But if you think of all the people who don't like me, just think of all the millions who've never heard of me!

(Songwriting) It's a gift. It all comes from somewhere. I started out really young, when I was four, five, six, writing poems, before I could play an instrument. I was writing about things when I was eight or 10 years old that I hadn't lived long enough to experience.

...when you put your life in a good place, good things follow.

A frozen river is not a dry one, it's just a still river on the surface but is still moving, and so am my winter writing.

A lot of country music is sad.

A lot of guns there's no need for civilians to own those those are for military

America, to me, is freedom.

Americans don't eat horses. They are not raised as food animals and they are treated with chemicals that render them unsafe for consumption. The regulations needed to change their status to "food animals" would cripple every aspect of the horse industry as we know it. Plus, it would be wrong.

As adults we try to relax from the never-ending quest for reason and order by drinking a little whiskey or smoking whatever works for us, but the wisdom isn't in the whiskey or the smoke. The wisdom is in the moments when the madness slips away and we remember the basics.

At 82, Nelson (who wrote the song "On the Road Again," among a thousand or more others) is the elder statesman of country music, a steadying and powerful voice in the industry and on environmental issues, and he's still on the road much of the year. The music keeps calling.

Be careful what you dream: soon your dreams will be dreaming you.

Be gentle with your words - you can't take them back.

Be here. Be present. Wherever you are, be there.

Every now and then I'll think of something to put back in the show. I just kind of play it off the top of my head. If I do it that way it keeps it kinda fresh.

Family farmers are small farmers who love the land. They're still not getting enough money for their product and are rapidly losing their battle to stay in business. By helping the American family farmer, we will in turn help ourselves out of the economic hole that we find ourselves in today. It doesn't really matter how we got here; the point is, we have to dig our way out.

Fortunately, we are not in control.

Gatewood Galbraith was a good friend, and a tireless advocate for the repeal of the ridiculous ban on hemp & marijuana. His book â??The Last Free Man Standing' says it all.

Gay or straight? So what? It doesn't matter to me. We have to be concerned about other people regardless.

God has blessed you richly, so get down on your knees and thank him. Don't forget the less fortunate or God will personally kick your ass. I'd love to do it for him, but I can't be everywhere.

Heard you told him that you'd love him 'til the end of time. Now that's the same thing that you told me.

Horses were a way to travel to get to where we are today, and it is our job to protect them.

How would you like to bite that in the ass, develop lock jaw and be dragged to death?

I been a long time leaving but I'm going to be a long time gone.

I believe in looseness.

I didn't come here and I ain't leavin'.

I don't believe in adhering to any rules I don't support and I didn't vote for. To hell with what people think. Just be who you are and you'll be happy.

I don't smoke as many joints as I used to.

I got in at 2 with a 10, and woke up at 10 with a 2.

I had gotten up to two, maybe three, packs (of cigarettes) a day. And my lungs were bothering me and I'd had pneumonia two or three times. And I was also smoking pot, and I decided, well, one of them's got to go. And so I took a pack of Chesterfields and took all the Chesterfields out, rolled up 20 big fat ones and put it in there, and I haven't smoked a cigarette since then

I have more dumb luck thank anybody I know. There must be a convey of guardian angels working twenty-four hours a day looking after me[...] Like the night I first got to Nashville that I laid down in the middle of Broadway, waiting to get run over. It didn't happen [...] I could swear they were keeping me alive just to see what I'd get next, I'm glad they feel that way. I'm trying to help them a little more this days.

I just enjoy both working and not working.

I like myself better when I'm writing regularly.

I like myself better when I'm writing regularly. ... I was influenced a lot by those around me-there was a lot of singing that went on in the cotton fields. ... I'm a country songwriter and we write cry-in-your-beer songs. That's what we do. Something that you can slow dance to...I never gave up on country music because I knew what I was doing was not that bad. ... Most of the stuff I've read about me has been true.

I like to play small clubs.

I never pretended to have a great voice. It works and I can carry a tune. If you have a good song, that's about all that's required.

I smoke pot every day, and I love it!

I started learning my lessons in Abbot Texas, where I was born in 1933. My sister Bobbie and I were raised by our grandparents [...] We never had enough money, and Bobbie and I started working at an early age to help the family get by. That hard work included picking cotton. [...] Picking cotton is hard and painful work, and the most lasting lesson I learned in the fields was that I didn't want to spend my life picking cotton.

I started writing cheating songs when I was too young to have any idea what I was writing about - broken hearts and things like that. I just think it was something I already knew, something I had experienced in another lifetime.

I still probably smoke as much as I ever did!

I take it not only a day at a time, but a moment at a time, and keep it at that pace. If you can be happy right now, then you'll always be happy, because it's always in the now

I think innately knew that music draws people together and that good music is liked by almost everybody.

I use vaporizers a lot. It cuts down on the heat and the smoke. And for a singer that's not a bad idea.

I was in the Air Force a while and they had what they call "policing the area." That's where you looked around and if there's anything wrong here, there, anywhere, you took care of your own area. And I think that's a pretty good thing to go by. If everyone just takes care of their own area then we won't have any problems. Be here. Be present. Wherever you are, be there. And look around you and see what needs to be changed.