These quotes from the Man in Black are great reading for when you are thoughtful. Over 200 Johnny Cash quotes!
Johnny Cash – Musician
Johnny Cash was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor and author. He is widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.
Cash was known for his deep, baritone voice and for his country music, which often incorporated elements of rockabilly and blues. His songs ranged from love ballads to anthems of rebellion, sometimes funny or dark. Towards the end of his career, he even covered “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails.
Sadly, Cash passed away in 2003, but his legacy continues to live on through his music. In honor of the Man in Black, here are 25 Johnny Cash quotes that will inspire you.
Best Johnny Cash Quotes
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
– Johnny Cash
Stop your ears and close your eyes and try to find the face of love.
– Johnny Cash
The ones that you’re calling wild are going to be the leaders in a little while.
– Johnny Cash
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.
– Johnny Cash
People ask me who is my favorite country artist. I say, you mean besides George Jones.
– Johnny Cash
You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone.
– Johnny Cash
It’s good to believe in yourself, but there are people out there who can make or break you.
– Johnny Cash
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.
– Johnny Cash
Get rhythm when you get the blues.
– Johnny Cash
Everything I have and everything I do is now given completely to Jesus Christ.
– Johnny Cash
Sometimes I am two people. Johnny is the nice one. Cash causes all the trouble. They fight.
– Johnny Cash
A rose looks grey at midnight, but the flame is just asleep. And steel is strong because it knows the hammer and white heat.
– Johnny Cash
I’m not bitter. Why should I be bitter? I’m thrilled to death with life.
– Johnny Cash
Oh, I’d love to wear a rainbow everyday, And tell the world that everything’s okay, But I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back, Till things are brighter, I’m the Man in Black.
– Johnny Cash
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.’
– Johnny Cash
it’s good to know who hates you and it is good to be hated by the right people
– Johnny Cash
Quotes by Johnny Cash
I learn from my mistakes. It’s a very painful way to learn, but without pain, the old saying is, there’s no gain.
– Johnny Cash
I don’t give up because I don’t give up. I don’t believe in it.
– Johnny Cash
When I’m gone I’ll be remembered as the workin’ man who put his point across with a right hand full of knuckles.
– Johnny Cash
Success is having to worry about every damn thing in the world, except money.
– Johnny Cash
Related: 150 Success Quotes To Inspire Daily Actions Towards Your Goals
Sam Phillips always encouraged me to do it my way, to use whatever other influences I wanted, but never to copy…if there hadn’t been a Sam Phillips, I might still be working in a cotton field.
– Johnny Cash
Life is rough so you gotta be tough.
– Johnny Cash
When you sing, you pray twice.
– Johnny Cash
If you’re going to be a Christian, you’re going to change. You’re going to lose some old friends, not because you want to, but because you need to.
– Johnny Cash
Until things are brighter.. I’m the man in black.
– Johnny Cash
I don’t like it, but I guess things happen that way.
– Johnny Cash
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.
– Johnny Cash
You’re so heavenly minded, you’re no earthly good.
– Johnny Cash
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.
– Johnny Cash
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.
– Johnny Cash
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.
– Johnny Cash
When God forgave me, I figured I’d better do it too.
– Johnny Cash
Famous Johnny Cash Quotes
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.
– Johnny Cash
I knew Bob Dylan was searching for the truth and had been for years. And anyone who Really wants the truth ends up at Jesus
– Johnny Cash
We’re all in this together if we’re in it at all.
– Johnny Cash
Those that have lived longer than us always have something to teach us, that we can take with us for the rest of our lives.
– Johnny Cash
For you I know I’d even try to turn the tide.
– Johnny Cash
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.
– Johnny Cash
If you aren’t gonna say exactly how and what you feel, you might as well not say anything at all.
– Johnny Cash
Life and love go on, let the music play.
– Johnny Cash
Related: Life’s Too Short Quotes
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.
– Johnny Cash
I found out that there weren’t too many limitations, if I did it my way.
– Johnny Cash
Burn my Flag and I will shoot you……..but I’ll shoot you with a lot of love, like a good American
– Johnny Cash
As sure as God made black and white, what’s done in the dark will be brought to the light.
– Johnny Cash
I’m thrilled to death with life.
– Johnny Cash
Take one fresh and tender kiss. Add one stolen night of bliss. One girl, one boy, some grief, some joy Memories are made of this.
– Johnny Cash
It takes a real man to live for God-a lot more man than to live for the devil, you know? If you really want to live right these days, you gotta be tough.
– Johnny Cash
Related: Quotes To Live By
Jesus will not fail me, I shall not be moved.
– Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash Quotations
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.
– Johnny Cash
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.
– Johnny Cash
Loneliness is emptiness, but happiness is you.
– Johnny Cash
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
– Johnny Cash
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.
– Johnny Cash
Rick Rubin said, well, I don’t know that we will sell records. He said, I would like you to go with me and sit in my living room with a guitar and two microphones and just sing to your heart’s content everything you ever wanted to record. I said, that sounds good to me. So I did that. And day after day, three weeks, I sang for him.
– Johnny Cash
The gospel of Christ must always be an open door with a welcome sign for all.
– Johnny Cash
Death and hell are never full, and neither are men’s eyes.
– Johnny Cash
The battle against the dark one and the clinging to the right one is what my life is about.
– Johnny Cash
Life is – the way God has given it to me was just a platter – a golden platter of life laid out there for me. It’s been beautiful.
– Johnny Cash
Happiness is being at peace, being with loved ones, being comfortable…but most of all, it’s having those loved ones.
– Johnny Cash
When I think about country music, I think about America.
– Johnny Cash
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.
– Johnny Cash
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.
– Johnny Cash
The beast in me Is caged by frail and fragile bars.
– Johnny Cash
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.
– Johnny Cash
Best Known Johnny Cash Quotes
If you have political convictions… keep ’em to yourself
– Johnny Cash
Inside the walls of a prison my body may be, but my Lord has set my soul free.
– Johnny Cash
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.
– Johnny Cash
We’ll all be equal under the grass, and God’s got a heaven for country trash.
– Johnny Cash
You can ask the people around me. I don’t give up. I don’t give up. I don’t give – 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.
– Johnny Cash
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.
– Johnny Cash
Creative people have to be fed from the divine source. I have to get fed. I had to get filled up in order to pour out.
– Johnny Cash
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.
– Johnny Cash
A person knows when it just seems to feel right to them. Listen to your heart.
– Johnny Cash
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.
– Johnny Cash
Related: Finding yourself quotes
Don’t take voice lessons. Do it your way.
– Johnny Cash
Life is the question and life is the answer, and God is the reason and love is the way.
– Johnny Cash
The more I learn, the more excited I get.
– Johnny Cash
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.
– Johnny Cash
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.
– Johnny Cash
You have to be what you are. Whatever you are, you gotta be it.
– Johnny Cash
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.
– Johnny Cash
Related: Inspirational Strength Quotes To Build A Steel Like Mindset
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.
– Johnny Cash
Being rich means you get to worry about everything except money.
– Johnny Cash
Love is a burning thing and it makes a firey ring.
– Johnny Cash
My arms are too short to box with God.
– Johnny Cash
I keep my eyes wide open all the time.
– Johnny Cash
“There’s a man going round taking names. And he decides who to free and who to blame. Everybody won’t be treated all the same. There’ll be a golden ladder reaching down. When the man comes around.”
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