Yip Harburg Quotes

48 Sourced Quotes

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
Last night
When we were young Love was a star,
A song unsung,
Life was so new,
So real, so right,
Ages ago,
Last night.

Yip Harburg
How are things in Glocca Morra?
Is that little brook still leaping there?
Does it still run down to Donny cove?
Through Killybegs, Kilkerry and Kildare?

Yip Harburg
For a halo up in heaven
I have never been too keen.
Who needs another gadget
That a fellow has to clean?

Yip Harburg
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
And only God who makes the tree
Also makes the fools like me. But only fools like me, you see,
Can make a God, who makes a tree.

Yip Harburg
When our organs have been transplanted
And the new ones made happy to lodge in us,
Let us pray one wish be granted—
We retain our zones erogenous.

Yip Harburg
Why should I write for posterity?
What, if I may be free
To ask a ridiculous question,
Has posterity done for me?

Yip Harburg
When Grandma was a lassie
That tyrant known as man
Thought a woman's place
Was just the space
Around a fryin' pan.
It was good enough for Grandma
But it ain't good enough for us!

Yip Harburg
Lives of great men all remind us greatness takes no easy way.
All the heroes of tomorrow are the heretics of today.
Socrates and Galileo, John Brown, Thoreau, Christ, and Debs
Heard the night cry down with traitors, and the dawn shout "Up the reds!"

Yip Harburg
In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to
thoughts of love;
And in summer,
and in autumn,
and in winter—
See above.

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

Yip Harburg
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 Bleeker Street chord resulting in a shotgun wedding and a quickie divorce.

Yip Harburg
We got no Mussolini, got no Mosley,
We got Popeye and Gipsy Rose Lee.

Yip Harburg
Once I built a railroad, I made it run,
made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad; now it's done.
Brother, can you spare a dime?

Yip Harburg
What throws a monkey wrench in
A fella's good intention?
That nasty old invention—
Necessity!

Yip Harburg
Life is short, short, brother!
Ain't it the truth?
And there is no other
Ain't it the truth?
You gotta rock that rainbow while you still got your youth!
Oh! Ain't it the solid truth?

Yip Harburg
I never knew the charm of spring
Never met it face to face
I never knew my heart could sing
Never missed a warm embrace
'Til April in Paris.
Whom can I run to
What have you done to
My heart...

Yip Harburg