Phil Ochs Quotations

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

Leave the old and dying America and use your creative energies to help form a new America, which would be de-militarized, more humanistic, where the police are less hostile and closer to the community, where the wealthy are not given unleashed power for the exploitation of the people.

Smoking marijuana is more fun than drinking beer.

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

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?

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

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

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

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

[The Yippie demonstrations] were merely an attack of mental disobedience on an obediently insane society ... and if you feel you have been living in an unreal world for the last couple of years, it is particularly because this power structure has refused to listen to reason ... Step outside the guidelines of the official umpires and make your own rules and your own reality.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

I like Hitler, jolly jolly Hitler.

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.

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?

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

So good to be alive when the eulogies are read.

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

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

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.

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

The truest protest is beauty.

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

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

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

Beneath the greatest love lies a hurricane of hate.

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

The only way to Cuba is with the CIA.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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