The Personal Website of Mark W. Dawson

My Favorite Quotes of Will Rogers

Will Rogers William Penn Adair Rogers (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) was an American stage and film actor, vaudeville performer, cowboy, humorist, newspaper columnist, and social commentator from Oklahoma. He was a Cherokee citizen born in the Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory. Known as "Oklahoma's Favorite Son", Rogers was born to a Cherokee family in Indian Territory (now part of Oklahoma). As an entertainer and humorist, he traveled around the world three times, made 71 films (50 silent films and 21 "talkies"), and wrote more than 4,000 nationally syndicated newspaper columns. By the mid-1930s, Rogers was hugely popular in the United States for his leading political wit and was the highest paid of Hollywood film stars. He died in 1935 with aviator Wiley Post when their small airplane crashed in northern Alaska.One of Rogers's most famous sayings was "I never met a man I didn't like" and he even provided an epigram on this famous epigram:

Many of his quotes on society and government are apropos to America today. These are some of my favorites:

“After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him... The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.”
 - Will Rogers

“All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that's an alibi for my ignorance.”
 - Will Rogers

“America has the best politicians money can buy.”
 - Will Rogers

“Congress is going to start tinkering with the Ten Commandments just as soon as they find someone in Washington who has read them.”
 - Will Rogers

“Democrats are the only reason to vote for Republicans”
 - Will Rogers

“Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.”
 - Will Rogers

“Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.”
 - Will Rogers

“Government investigations have always contributed more to our amusement than they have to our knowledge.”
 - Will Rogers

“I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.”
 - Will Rogers

“I remember when being liberal meant being generous with your own money.”
 - Will Rogers

“I would love to see Mr. (Henry) Ford in there, really. I don't know who started the idea that a President must be a Politician instead of a Business man. A Politician can't run any other kind of business. So there is no reason why he can run the U.S. That's the biggest single business in the World.”
 - Will Rogers

“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”
 - Will Rogers

“If you ever injected truth into politics you would have no politics.”
 - Will Rogers

“Ignorance lies not in the things you don't know, but in the things you know that ain't so.”
 - Will Rogers

“Last year we said, 'Things can't go on like this', and they didn't, they got worse.”
 - Will Rogers

“Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier 'n puttin' it back in.”
 - Will Rogers

“Never slap a man who's chewing tobacco. Never kick a cow chip on a hot day. Never miss a good chance to shut up.”
 - Will Rogers

“The man who never makes a mistake must get tired of doing nothing.”
 - Will Rogers

“The more ignorant you are, the quicker you fight.”
 - Will Rogers

“The more you read and observe about this Politics thing, the more you've got to admit that each party is worse than the other.”
 - Will Rogers

“The short memories of the American voters is what keeps our politicians in office.”
 - Will Rogers

“The taxpayers are sending congressmen on expensive trips abroad. It might be worth it except they keep coming back”
 - Will Rogers

“The trouble with practical jokes is that very often they get elected.”
 - Will Rogers

“There are men running governments who shouldn't be allowed to play with matches.”
 - Will Rogers

“There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.”
 - Will Rogers

“There is nothing as easy as denouncing. It don't take much to see that something is wrong, but it does take some eyesight to see what will put it right again”
 - Will Rogers

“There is one guaranteed formula for failure, and that is to try to please everyone.”
 - Will Rogers

“We always want the best man to win an election. Unfortunately, he never runs.”
 - Will Rogers

“We are all ignorant. We are just ignorant about different things.”
 - Will Rogers

“We will never have true civilization until we have learned to recognize the rights of others.”
 - Will Rogers

When ignorance gets started it knows no bounds.”
 - Will Rogers

When you find yourself in a hole, quit digging.”
 - Will Rogers

With Congress, every time they make a joke it's a law, and every time they make a law it's a joke.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”
 - Will Rogers