Yip Harburg Quotes

#1. All the heroes of tomorrow are the heretics of today.

Yip Harburg

#2. The world would be a safer place, If someone had a plan, Before exploring outer space, To find the inner man.

Yip Harburg

#3. Songs are the pulse of a nation's heart. A fever chart of its health.

Yip Harburg

#4. For what we are about to receive, Oh Lord 'tis Thee we thank,' said the cannibal as he cut a slice off the missionary's shank.

Yip Harburg

#5. It's a Barnum and Bailey world,
Just as phony as it can be.

Yip Harburg

#6. Words make you think a thought.
Music makes you feel a feeling.
A song makes you feel a thought.

Yip Harburg

#7. No matter how much I prove and prod, I cannot quite believe in God; But oh, I hope to God that He Unswervingly believes in me.

Yip Harburg

#8. We gotta be free - The eagle and me. see Amelia Jenks Bloomer, Emancipation of Women

Yip Harburg

#9. Once I built a railroad, now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?

Yip Harburg

#10. I am one of the last of a small tribe of troubadours, who still believe that life is a beautiful and exciting journey with a purpose and grace which are well worth singing about.

Yip Harburg

#11. My whole family has been having trouble with immigrants ever since we came to this country.

Yip Harburg

#12. They who meet on an April night are forever lost in love, if there's moonlight all about and there's no moon above.

Yip Harburg

#13. Did God who gave us flowers and trees, Also provide the allergies?

Yip Harburg

#14. A Russian child asked his mother : "does God know we don't believe in Him?"

Yip Harburg

#15. My heart wants roots
My mind wants wings.
I cannot bear
Their bickerings.

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#16. This we learn from Watergate that almost any creep'll be glad to help the Government overthrow the people.

Yip Harburg

#17. WHERE and WHEN :;Are lost in space. THERE and THEN :;Do not embrace. So before we disappear Come sweet NOW and kiss the HERE.

Yip Harburg

#18. Oh, innocent victims of Cupid, remember this terse little verse: To let a fool kiss you is stupid. To let a kiss fool you is worse.

Yip Harburg

#19. I am a rebel by birth ... I contest anything that is unjust, that causes suffering in humanity . My feelings about that are so strong, I don't think I could live with myself if I weren't honest .

Yip Harburg

#20. When the melody touches your heart emotionally and the words hit your brain intellectually, more than likely you'll find you'll have an excellent song to sing.

Yip Harburg

#21. If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow, why oh why can't I?

Yip Harburg

#22. Music gives 'wings' to words.

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#23. Lives of great men all remind us greatness takes no easy way.

Yip Harburg

#24. How are things in Glocca Mora this fine day?

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#25. No matter how high or great the throne, What sits on it is the same as your own.

Yip Harburg

#26. As the writer of the lyric of the song 'God's Country', I am outraged by the suggestion that somehow I am connected with, believe in, or am sympathetic with Communist or totalitarian philosophy.

Yip Harburg

#27. The greatest romance in the life of a lyricist is when the right word meets the right note; often, however, a Park Avenue phrase elopes with a Bleecker Street chord, resulting in a shotgun wedding and a quickie divorce.

Yip Harburg