When you find yourself in a hole, quit digging – Will Rogers Quotes. Will Rogers was first an Indian, a cowboy and a national figure. Born in 1879 on a large ranch in the Cherokee Nation near what later would become Oologah, Oklahoma, Will Rogers was taught by a freed slave how to use a lasso as a tool to work Texas Longhorn cattle on the family ranch.
As he grew older, Will Rogers’ roping skills developed so special that he was listed in the Guinness Book of Records for throwing three lassos at once: One rope caught the running horse’s neck, the other would hoop around the rider and the third swooped up under the horse to loop all four legs. Will Rogers’ unsurpassed lariat feats were recorded in the classic movie, “The Ropin’ Fool.”
His hard-earned skills won him jobs trick roping in wild west shows and on the vaudeville stages where, soon, he started telling small jokes. Quickly, his wise cracks and folksy observations became more prized by audiences than his expert roping.
He became recognized as being a very informed and smart philosopher–telling the truth in very simple words so that everyone could understand. After the 10th grade,
Will Rogers dropped out of school to become a cowboy in a cattle drive. He always regretted that he didn’t finish school, but he made sure that he never stopped learning–reading, thinking and talking to smart people. His hard work paid off.
Will Rogers was the star of Broadway and 71 movies of the 1920s and 1930s; a popular broadcaster; besides writing more than 4,000 syndicated newspaper columns and befriending Presidents, Senators and Kings.
During his lifetime, he traveled around the globe three times– meeting people, covering wars, talking about peace and learning everything possible. He wrote six books. In fact he published more than two million words.
He was the first big time radio commentator, was a guest at the White House and his opinions were sought by the leaders of the world. Inside himself, Will Rogers remained a simple Oklahoma cowboy. “I never met a man I didn’t like,” was his credo of genuine love and respect for humanity and all people everywhere.
He gave his own money to disaster victims and raised thousands for the Red Cross and Salvation Army. At home, either on his ranch in Oklahoma or California, he always enjoyed riding horseback, roping steers or playing polo.
He would scratch his head, grin and quip that he figured there was something wrong with anybody that didn’t like a horse. Jim Rogers, 1915-2000, after starring in some cowboy movies as a young man, spent his life as a horse and cattle rancher.
Betty and Will Rogers’s youngest son, Fred, died of diphtheria when he was two. There were eight children born to Will Rogers’ parents, but only four reached adulthood on the rugged frontier of 19th Century Indian Territory.
While a fast horse thrilled Will Rogers, he also loved flying. It was on a flight to Alaska in 1935 with a daring one-eyed Oklahoma pilot named Wiley Post that their plane crashed and both men lost their lives.
Will Rogers Quotes
If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.
Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.
There are three kinds of men. The ones that learn by readin’. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.
Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else.
Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.
Diplomacy is the art of saying ‘nice doggie’ until you can find a rock.
There are two theories to arguing with a woman. Neither works.
When you find yourself in a hole, quit digging – Will Rogers Quotes
A man only learns in two ways, one by reading, and the other by association with smarter people.
Common sense ain’t common. If pro is the opposite of con, what is the opposite of Congress?
I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
The more you observe politics, the more you’ve got to admit that each party is worse than the other.
The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it in your back pocket.
The difference between death and taxes is death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.
No party is as bad as its leaders. Everybody is ignorant only on different subjects.
Strangers are just friends I haven’t met yet. Everything is changing.
People are taking the comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.
With Congress, every time they make a joke it’s a law, and every time they make a law it’s a joke. I’m not a real movie star.
I’ve still got the same wife I started out with twenty-eight years ago.
Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.
The only way to beat the lawyers is to die with nothing.
Liberty doesn’t work as well in practice as it does in speeches.
You know you are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks.
If you don’t learn to laugh at trouble, you won’t have anything to laugh at when you’re old.
Mona Lisa is the only beauty who went through history and retained her reputation.
Things will get better – despite our efforts to improve them.
Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.
I bet after seeing us, George Washington would sue us for calling him “father.” I never met a man that I didn’t like.
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