200 Johnny Cash Quotes for Living Life to the Fullest

Johnny Cash Quotes are quotes from John R. Cash, an American actor, singer, and songwriter, who died in the year 2003.

These quotes are inspiring and filled with lessons. Below are some of Johnny Cash’s Quotes on Love, God, and Life.

Kindly explore the page further so that you can get them all for your reading pleasure. These quotes are both inspiring and entertaining.

Johnny Cash Quotes

1. All your life, you will be faced with a choice. You can choose love or hate…I choose love-hate.

2. 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.

3. My arms are too short to box with life, God.

4. There are a lot of things blamed on me that never happened. But then, there are a lot of things that I did that I never got caught at.

5. Flesh and blood need fresh blood, and you’re the one I need

6. The beast in me Is caged by frail and fragile bars.

7. You’re so heavenly-minded, you’re no earthly good.

8. Beneath the stains of time the feeling disappears, you are someone else I am still right here.

9. You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on them. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.

10. You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on them. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.

11. You’ve got a song you’re singing from your gut, you want that audience to feel it in their gut. And you’ve got to make them think that you’re one of them sitting out there with them too. They’ve got to be able to relate to what you’re doing.

12. Sometimes I am two people. love Johnny is the nice one. Cash causes all the trouble. They fight.

13. I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.

14. I’m not bitter. Why should I be bitter? I’m thrilled to death life.

15. 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.

16. This morning, with her, having coffee

17. So I simply don’t buy the concept of “” as the “lost generation.” I see too many good kids out there, kids who are ready and willing to do the right thing, just as Jack was. Their distractions are greater, though. There’s no more simple life with simple choices for the young.

18. I Walk the Line. “Johnny Cash Quotes”

19. I took the easy way, and to an extent, I regret that. Still, though, the way we did it was honest. We played it and sang it the way we felt it, and there’s a lot to be said for that.

20. 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.

21. However, neither he nor anyone else could have become the star Elvis was. Ain’t nobody like Elvis. Never was.

22. You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on them. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.

23. Sometimes I am two people. Johnny is the nice one. Cash causes all the trouble. They fight.

24. For you I know I’d even try to turn the tide.

25. Success is having to worry about every damn thing in the world, except money.

26. Life is rough so you gotta be tough.

27. I’m not bitter. Why should I be bitter? I’m thrilled to death with life

28. God gives us life and takes us away as He sees fit. “Johnny Cash Quotes”

29. 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.

30. I found out that there weren’t too many limitations if I did it my way.

31. I’m very shy really. I spend a lot of time in my room alone reading writing or watching television.

32. 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.

33. I love to go to the studio and stay there 10 or 12 hours a day. emotions of love. What is it? I don’t know. It’s life.

34. It’s like a novelist writing far-out things. If it makes a point and makes sense, then people like to read that. But if it’s off in left field and goes over the edge, you lose it. The same with musical talent, I think

35. When I record somebody else’s song, I have to make it my own or it doesn’t feel right. I’ll say to myself, I wrote this and he doesn’t know it!

36. You have to be what you are. Whatever you are, you gotta be it.

37. If this were a movie I’d be the bad guy. “Johnny Cash Quotes”

38. There are a lot of things blamed on me that never happened. But then, there are a lot of things that I did that I never got caught at.

39. Beneath the stains of time the feeling disappears, you are someone else I am still right here.

40. There’s no more simple life with simple choices for the young.

41. However, neither he nor anyone else could have become the star Elvis was. Ain’t nobody like Elvis. Never was.

42. Somehow there’s been an immediate bonding between total strangers. We share each other’s triumphs, and when one of us gets hurt, we all bleed – it’s corny, I know, but it’s true.

43. We’re all in this together if we’re in it at all.

44. 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.

45. The ones that you’re calling wild are going to be the leaders in a little while.

46. I’m not bitter. Why should I be bitter? I’m thrilled to death with live life. “Johnny Cash Quotes”

47. If you aren’t gonna say exactly how and what you feel, you might as well not say anything at all.

48. Money can’t buy back your youth when you’re old, a friend when you’re lonely, or peace to your soul.

49. It’s good to know who hates you and it is good to be hated by the right people.

50. A rose looks grey at midnight, but the flame is just asleep. And steel is strong because it knows the hammer and white heat.

51. 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.”

52. I love to go to the studio and stay there 10 or 12 hours a day. I love it. What is it? I don’t know. It’s life.

53. My father was a man of love. He always loved me to death. He worked hard in the fields, but my father never hit me. Never. I don’t ever remember a really cross, unkind word from my father.

54. Of emotions, of love, of a breakup, of love and hate and death and dying, mama, apple pie, and the whole thing. It covers a lot of territories, as country music does.

55. For you I know I’d even try to turn the tide. “Johnny Cash Quotes”

56. ‘ve always explored various areas of society. And I love young people. And I had empathy for folsom prison blues and did concerts for them back when I thought that it would make a difference – you know? – that they really were there to be rehabilitated.

57. “All your life, you will be faced with a choice. You can choose love or hate…I choose love.

58. “Life is rough so you gotta be tough.”

59. ‘Love Is The Way

60. Save my love through loneliness, Save my love for sorrow, I’m given you my onliness, Come give your tomorrow!…

70. Life and love go on, let the music play. “Johnny Cash Quotes”

71. Life is the question and life is the answer, God is the reason and love is the way.

72. 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

73. Johnny Cash, ‘A Thing Called Love

74. The Master of Life’s 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 others saw oblivion… Life and love go on, let the music play.

75.  All your life, you will be faced with a choice. You can choose love or hate. I choose love. “Johnny Cash Quotes”

76. I learn from my mistakes.  It’s a very painful way to learn, but without pain, the old saying is, there’s no gain.

78. There is a spiritual side to me that goes really deep, but I confess right up front that I’m the biggest sinner of them all.

79. 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.

80. 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.

81. And he decides who to free and who to blame Everybody won’t be treated all the same There’ll be a golden ladder reachin’ down When the man comes around…

82. Flesh and blood need flesh and blood, and you’re the one I need.

83. Until things are brighter… I’m the man in black. “Johnny Cash Quotes”

84. 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 give it all I’ve got, and to take pride in my work as an honest performer.

85. Success is having to worry about every damn thing in the world, except money.

86. There are 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.

87. I wore man 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.

88. 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.

89. God’s the final judge for Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash too. That’s solely in the hands of God.

90. I knew I wanted to sing when I was a very small boy. When I was probably four years old. My mother played a guitar and I would sit with her and she would sing and I learned to sing along with her.

91. Sometimes I am two people. “Johnny Cash Quotes”

92. Johnny is the nice one. Cash causes all the trouble. They fight.

93. That was the big thing when I was growing up, singing on the radio. The extent of my dream was to sing on the radio station in Memphis. Even when I got out of the Air Force in 1954, I came right back to Memphis and started knocking on doors at the radio station.

94. You’ve got a song you’re singing from your gut, you want that audience to feel it in their gut. And you’ve got to make them think that you’re one of them sitting out there with them too. They’ve got to be able to relate to what you’re doing.

95. I took the easy way, and to an extent, I regret that. Still, though, the way we did it was honest. We played it and sang it the way we felt it, and there’s a lot to be said about that.

96. 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.

97. It’s like a novelist writing far-out things. If it makes a point and makes sense, then people like to read that. But if it’s off in the left field and goes over the edge, you lose it. The same with musical talent, I think.

98. 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.

99. 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 black for those who never read.

100. I was wearing black clothes almost from the beginning. I feel comfortable in black. I felt like black looked good onstage, and that it was attractive, so I started wearing it all the time.

101. I’m not bitter. Why should I be bitter? I’m thrilled to death with life.

102. Some gal would giggle and I’d get red, and some guy’d laugh and I’d bust his head. I tell ya, life ain’t easy for a boy named Sue.

103. The battle against the dark one and the clinging to the right one is what my life is about.

104. 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.

105. “God gives us life and takes us away as he sees fit.”

106. “I learn from my mistakes and it’s a very painful way to learn. But without pain, the old saying is. There’s no gain.”

107. “I took the easy way, and to an extent, I regret that. Still, though, the way we did it was honest. We played it and sang it the way we felt it, and there’s a lot to be said for that.”

 108. “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 Quotes”

 109. “If you aren’t gonna say exactly how and what you feel, you might as well not say anything at all.”

 110. “I love to go to the studio and stay there 10 or 12 hours a day. I love it. What is it? I don’t know. It’s life.”

111. “They’re powerful. Those songs. At times they’ve been my only way back. The only door out of the dark. And places the black dog calls home.

112. “When I record somebody else’s song, I have to make it my own or it doesn’t feel right. I’ll say to myself, I wrote this and he doesn’t know it!”

113. “You have to be what you are. Whatever you are, you gotta be it.”

114. “Life is rough so you gotta be tough.”

115. “Of emotions, of love, of breakup, of love and hate and death and dying, mama, apple pie, and the whole thing. It covers a lot of territory, country music does.”

116. “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.”

117. “Beneath the stains of time, the feeling disappears, you are someone else I am still right here.”

118. “There’s no more simple life with simple choices for the young.”

119. “Somehow there’s been an immediate bonding between total strangers. We share each other’s triumphs, and when one of us gets hurt, we all bleed – it’s corny, I know, but it’s true.”

120. “We’re all in this together if we’re in it at all.” “Johnny Cash Quotes”

121. “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.”

122. “The ones that you’re calling wild are going to be the leaders in a little while.”

123. “I’m not bitter. Why should I be bitter? I’m thrilled to death with life.”

124. “If you aren’t gonna say exactly how and what you feel, you might as well not say anything at all.”

125. “Money can’t buy back your youth when you’re old, a friend when you’re lonely, or peace to your soul.”

126. “It’s good to know who hates you and it is good to be hated by the right people.”

127. “A rose looks grey at midnight, but the flame is just asleep. And steel is strong because it knows the hammer and white heat.”

128. “You can ask the people around me. I don’t give up. I don’t give up… 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.”

129. “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.”

130. “This morning, with her, having coffee.”

131. “For you, I know I’d even try to turn the tide.”

132. “Happiness is being at peace, being with loved ones, being comfortable…but most of all, it’s having those loved ones.”

133. “When my wife died, I booked myself into the studio just to work, to occupy myself.”

134. “Flesh and blood need flesh and blood, and you’re the one I need.”

135. “Loneliness is emptiness but happiness is you.” “Johnny Cash Quotes”

136. “She’s the greatest woman I have ever known. Nobody else, except my mother, comes close.”

137. “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.”

138. “Life and love go on, let the music play.”

139. “All your life, you will be faced with a choice. You can choose love or hate… I choose love.”

140. “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.”

141. “If you don’t get outside every day, even for a minute, you have not appreciated what God has done. It makes you grateful for our surroundings, and it starts your day differently.”

142. “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.”

143. “Life is the question and life is the answer, and God is the reason and love is the way.” “Johnny Cash Quotes”

144. “I read novels but I also read the Bible. And study it, you know? And the more I learn, the more excited I get.”

145. “We’ll all be equal under the grass, and God’s got a heaven for country trash.”

146. “God’s the final judge for Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash too. That’s solely in the hands of God.”

147. “I have tried drugs and a little of everything else, and there iss nothing in the world more soul-satisfying than having the kingdom of God building inside you and growing.”

148. “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.

149. “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.”

150. “My arms are too short to box with God.”

151. “The gospel of Christ must always be an open door with a welcome sign for all.”

152. “Jesus will not fail me, I shall not be moved.” “Johnny Cash Quotes”

153. “I wear black because I’m comfortable in it. But then in the summertime when it’s hot I’m comfortable in light blue.”

154. “I was wearing black clothes almost from the beginning. I feel comfortable in black. I felt like black looked good onstage, that it was attractive, so I started wearing it all the time.”

155. “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.”

156. “You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.”

157. “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.”

158. “You’ve got a song you’re singing from your gut, you want that audience to feel it in their gut. And you’ve got to make them think that you’re one of them sitting out there with them too. They’ve got to be able to relate to what you’re doing.”

159. “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.”

160. “That was the big thing when I was growing up, singing on the radio. The extent of my dream was to sing on the radio station in Memphis. Even when I got out of the Air Force in 1954, I came right back to Memphis and started knocking on doors at the radio station.”

161. “I am not a Christian artist, I am an artist who is a Christian.”

162. “I knew I wanted to sing when I was a very small boy. When I was probably 4 years old. My mother played a guitar and I would sit with her and she would sing and I learned to sing along with her.”

163. “I start a lot more songs than I finish because I realize when I get into them, they’re no good. I don’t throw them away, I just put them away, store them, get them out of sight.”

164. “God’s the final judge for Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash too. That’s solely in the hands of God.”

165. “When God forgave me, I figured I’d better do it too.”

166. “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.”

167. “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.”

168. “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.”

169. “The gospel of Christ must always be an open door with a welcome sign for all.”

170. “The beast in me Is caged by frail and fragile bars.”

171. “What have I become, my sweetest friend? Everyone I know goes away, in the end.”

172. “I wear this crown of thorns Upon my liar’s chair Full of broken thoughts I cannot repair Beneath the stains of time The feelings disappear You are someone else I am still right here What have I become My sweetest friend?”

173. “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.” “Johnny Cash Quotes”

174. “You’re so heavenly minded, you’re no earthly good.”

175. “Sometimes I am two people. Johnny is the nice one. Cash causes all the trouble. They fight.”

176. “Everybody was wearing rhinestones, all those sparkly clothes, and cowboy boots. I decided to wear a black shirt and pants and see if I could get by with it. I did and I’ve worn black clothes ever since.”

177. “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 jumping’, where the cotton grew high.”

178. “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.”

179. “And I’d be dead, but by God’s grace Drive on, don’t mean nothin’ My children love me, but they don’t understand And I got a woman who knows her man Drive on, don’t mean nothin’, drive on.”

180. “Hardin wouldn’t run.”

181. “Until things are brighter.. I’m the man in black.”

182. Life is the question and life is the answer, and God is the reason and love is the way.

183. I expect my life to end pretty soon. You know, I’m 71 years old. I have great faith, though. I have unshakable faith. “Johnny Cash Quotes”

184. 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.

185. The Master of Life has been good to me. He has given me strength to face past illnesses, and victory in the face of defeat.

186. 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.

187. Happiness is being at peace, being with loved ones, being comfortable—but most of all, it’s having those loved ones.

188. 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 me, keeping our love hotter than a pepper sprout.

189. I love the weather. I’m a connoisseur of weather. Wherever my travels take me, the first thing I do is turn on the weather channel and see what’s going on, what’s coming.

190. There’s no more simple life with simple choices for the young.

191. The taste of love is sweet when hearts like ours meet. “Johnny Cash Quotes”

192. A person knows when it just seems to feel right to them. Listen to your heart.

193. I love , I really do. I love his early work, I love the first time he plugged in electrically, I love his Christian albums, and I love his other albums.

194. There are a lot of things blamed on me that never happened. But then, there are a lot of things that I did that I never got caught at.

195. I knew I wanted to sing when I was a very small boy. When I was probably 4 years old. My mother played a guitar and I would sit with her and she would sing and I learned to sing along with her.

196. 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.

197. Love is a burning thing and it makes a firey ring.

198. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on them.

199. I’m not really concerned about boundaries. I just follow my conscience and my heart. Follow your heart. That’s what I do.

200. Well, I’d love to wear a rainbow every day and tell the world that everything’s okay. But I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back.