ARKANSAS QUOTES
quotations about Arkansas
Arkansas is a curious and interesting community ... it is probably the most untouched and unawakened of all American states.
JOHN GUNTHER
Inside USA
Or send them to Arkansas to butcher the politicians and clergy? It is not only a way to get rid of them, and of the heavy expense of keeping them; it is a way to civilize Arkansas and the South Seas.
H. L. MENCKEN
Mencken Chrestomathy
I cannot prove that God is from Arkansas, but I know for sure that He has family there.
JIMMY PEACOCK
"Keep Arkansas in the Accent!", My Oklahomian Exile: An Exiled Arkie of the Covenant
If I could rest anywhere, it would be in Arkansas, where the men are the real half-horse, half-alligator breed such as grows nowhere else on the face of the earth.
DAVY CROCKETT
Narrative of the Life of David Crockett
If any place can engender a sense of being permanently dissed, it's Arkansas.
PETER APPLEBONE
"It's Not Called Arkansas for Nothing", New York Times, Aug. 16, 1998
I was the fattest baby in Clark County, Arkansas. They put me in the newspaper. It was like a prize turnip.
BILLY BOB THORNTON
attributed, IMDB
To be born in Arkansas is a misfortune and an injustice from which they will never recover and upon which they will look back with bitterness when plunged, in adult life, into competition with the children born from other states.
TWENTIETH CENTURY EDUCATIONAL REPORT
Arkansas and the New South: 1874-1929
Heaven: Arkansas without the heat and mosquitoes.
JIMMY PEACOCK
"Keep Arkansas in the Accent!", My Oklahomian Exile: An Exiled Arkie of the Covenant
Citizenship in New York is now worth no more than citizenship in Arkansas, for it is open to any applicant from the marshes of Bessarabia, and, still worse, to any applicant from Arkansas.
H. L. MENCKEN
A Second Mencken Chrestomathy
There is pretty strong characters down there [in Arkansas]. You can't redeem 'em, you just join 'em.
WILL ROGERS
attributed, The Wit and Wisdom of Will Rogers
Mispronouncing Arkansas is illegal in Arkansas.
SANDY SILVERTHORNE
Amazing Tips to Make You Smarter: Hundreds of Helpful, Fun Facts to Improve Your Life
It strikes me that when people try to describe Arkansas, they usually describe Arkansans. Admittedly, many of their descriptions are wrong. For instance, we tend to wear shoes here as much as people in any other state, and most of us do not marry our cousins, kissing or otherwise. Arkansas's people have long borne these misconceptions and, in some cases, taken them up with pride.
ERIN DALTON
preface, Rough Sort of Beauty: Reflections on the Natural Heritage of Arkansas
The smeller's the feller.
ARKANSAS PROVERB
Arkansas is the natural state and is not as bad as most people think it is.
ANONYMOUS
Urban Dictionary
Why couldn't the baby Jesus be born in Arkansas? They couldn't find three wise men or a virgin!
ANONYMOUS
Arkansas has one of the largest poverty populations in the country. It's a minority state. It's a working-people state. It's a small farmer state. If you can't be a populist in Arkansas, you ain't going to be a populist in Washington.
JIM HIGHTOWER
Mother Jones, November/December 1995
Why did O. J. Simpson want to move to Arkansas? Everyone has the same DNA!
ANONYMOUS
Arkansas?... Excuse me, but isn't that the Bubba/Backwater/Redneck capital of the Western World?
L. C. JOHNSON
Orlando Sentinel, Mar. 19, 2000
From the majestic Mississippi to the Oklahoma line is farther than from London to Paris. Between lies an empire--fields of cotton and grain, sparkling streams and lovely lakes.... Arkansas is my State. Every day it heaps riches upon me. These I shall some day repay. If I cannot sit high in the councils of my country I shall see that only worthy men do. My voice shall be honestly spoken.
JOHN H. HINEMON
The Arkansas Teacher, Jan. 1922
No matter where you go in Arkansas you discover that its people are close to the soil. In a Little Rock hotel lobby, where legislators stand around in a fog of tobacco smoke, a moderately good ear can distinguish the drawled "heahs" and "theahs" of a cotton-county representative from the slightly nasal burr of a hillman--who is likely to pronounce "put" as "putt" and "where" as "whir". Both men, however, probably know from boyhood experience the kick of a plow when it strikes a root, how hard it is to stalk a crow, and the disheartening length of a field when viewed over a hoe handle.
FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT
"Arkansas Today", The WPA Guide to Arkansas: The Natural State