quotations about Arkansas
I've met with ups and downs in life, and better days I've saw;
But I never knew what mis'ry were, till I came to Arkansas.
ANONYMOUS
"The State of Arkansas", Folk Song
Any time you tangle with an Arkansas hillbilly or hillbillyess, you are going to run second.
WILL ROGERS
attributed, The Wit and Wisdom of Will Rogers
What do Razorbacks do on Halloween? Pump kin!
ANONYMOUS
Arkansas is a parallel state influenced equally by star-crossed criminality and the dreamlike myth of the sheltering family.
TOM DRURY
attributed, Arkansas
Arkansas is not a bloody waste as our neighbors saw us thirty-five years ago, but a great, progressive, resourceful state, greatly undeveloped.
ANONYMOUS
"City of Roses", 1901
Arkansas exhibits a case of political consensus in exaggerated form.
JANINE A. PARRY & WILLIAM D. SCHRECKHISE
Readings in Arkansas Politics and Government
Part of the wealth of Arkansas today is not in its minerals and forests, but in the sights and sounds encountered by a visitor. It may be the small thunder of a covey of quail that he will remember longest, or a flight of mallards wheeling down into a swamp because of a hunter's expertly rendered call, or the bright glow of strawstacks burning in the ricefields after threshing time. The zigzag rail fences overgrown with honeysuckle, the clear smokeless air in the cities, the tumbling of the mountains eastward from Winslow, the smell of woodsmoke from a great stone chimney at the end of a cabin, the pungency of pine sawdust and the whine of the saw biting into a log, the clumps of mistletoe in leafless trees. You won't forget those things soon, even though they are not the important aspects of Arkansas, where the politeness of the South and the friendliness of the West are both responsible for that personal tone in "Y'awl hurry back."
FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT
"Arkansas Today", The WPA Guide to Arkansas: The Natural State
Arkansas is a funny, even captivating place. It is quirky and independent, and stubborn. It is full of contradictions.
JAMES M. PERRY
Wall Street Journal
O Arkansas is a doughty State,
But she was made to stagger
Under the burden set by fate,
The Rule of the Carpet-bagger.
JOHN GOULD FLETCHER
attributed, Writers and Writings from the Delta to the Ozarks
Arkansas is a complicated place, and we are a complicated people. Because we are complicated, we are sometimes hard to understand. Our Arkansas heritage is part Southern, part Southwestern, part Midwestern, and part Appalachian. Our roots extend to Europe, Africa, and Asia. However, it is important to understand that each part of the state is not simply a little of all those things. Instead, different parts of the state are primarily Southern, or Midwestern, or have some other distinctive character. The land and people of each part of the state are different from those of other parts. To understand Arkansas we must understand it part by part.
THOMAS FOTI
Arkansas and the Land
What did Tennessee? Whatever Arkansas!
ANONYMOUS
Arkansas is the South of the Midwest and the Midwest of the South.
JIMMY PEACOCK
"Keep Arkansas in the Accent!", My Oklahomian Exile: An Exiled Arkie of the Covenant
I keep hearing all these jokes on TV about how people in Arkansas are still barefoot hillbillies. Sure there are plenty of people living up in the hills and mountains on Arkansas. Why not? The scenery is breathtaking from their million-dollar houses up in those hills. Those people bought Wal-Mart stock early. They paid cash for those homes.
MARYLIN SCHWARTZ
New Times in the Old South: Or Why Scarlett's in Therapy & Tara's Going Condo
Just the other day the AP wire had a story about a man from Arkansas who entered some kind of contest and won a two-week vacation--all expenses paid--wherever he wanted to go. Any place in the world: Mongolia, Easter Island, the Turkish Riviera ... but his choice was Salt Lake City, and that's where he went. Is this man a registered voter? Has he come to grips with the issues? Has he bathed in the blood of the lamb?
HUNTER S. THOMPSON
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72
Why do folks in Arkansas go to the movie theater in groups of 18? 'Cuz 17 and under aren't admitted!
ANONYMOUS
So the duke said these Arkansas lunkheads couldn't come up to Shakespeare; what they wanted was low comedy--and maybe something rather worse than low comedy, he reckoned.
MARK TWAIN
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Thank God for Mississippi -- it keeps Arkansas from being last in everything!
ARKANSAS PROVERB
Actually, I am glad that Arkansas is known by its people because the people are a large part of what shapes the place. However, Arkansas's people are shaped by Arkansas in return: its trees, its lakes, its hills, its mountains, and a myriad of other natural wonders, along with its chiggers, its heat, its relative isolation. Arkansas people grew up in nature. And yes, it is true, we sometimes even take off our shoes to feel the grass beneath our feet. It is a wonderful feeling--the soft, warm summer grass on your soles. Every child knows that feeling; Arkansans just do not let themselves forget it.
ERIN DALTON
preface, Rough Sort of Beauty: Reflections on the Natural Heritage of Arkansas
Arkansas is known mostly for chickens and tourism.
L. E. KIMBALL
Seasonal Roads
Organized for the purpose of correlating the agencies which endeavor to convey to the outsider the great word about Arkansas thereby establishing a central body which has but one purpose--to preach the gospel of Arkansas, the Arkansas Advancement Association is getting down to real business. This association represents the ideals which have made you an incessant fighter for the proper recognition of your state. It is not a new idea, just a new determination and a sensible way of handling the proposition by uniting the strong men of the state for a common purpose. Every commercial organization, civic and patriotic body will be asked to take a prominent part in this work.... The program of the Arkansas Advancement Association is to place a button, "I am Proud of Arkansas," on every Arkansan going out of the state.... To prepare a card containing on one side twenty or more reasons why Arkansas is the greatest state.... To place on every visitor and traveling salesman possibly, a button, "I Have Been to Arkansas and I Like It," and give them plenty of information to back up the assertion.
ANONYMOUS
pamphlet, The Arkansas Advancement Association, 1921