Skip to content

Portrait of Utah Phillips

Utah Phillips

(1935–2008) Poet United States

42 quotes in 380 categories

Utah Phillips was a poet from the United States, best known for Socialist and Labor Songs.

Quick Facts About Utah Phillips

Born: May 15, 1935
Died: May 23, 2008
Nationality: United States
Profession: Poet
Notable works: Socialist and Labor Songs

About Utah Phillips

Bruce Duncan "Utah" Phillips was an American labor organizer, folk singer, storyteller and poet. He described the struggles of labor unions and the power of direct action, self-identifying as an anarchist. He often promoted the Industrial Workers of the World in his music, actions, and words.

Biography source: Wikipedia

Quotes by Utah Phillips

Laurie Lewis' songs combine passion and sheer craft in a way you don't hear very often. Whatever country music is supposed to…

Country

Image

It is better to be likable than to be talented.

Better

Image

The most un-American thing you can do is to stifle dissent

Can do

Image

“Yes, the long memory is the most radical idea in this country. It is the loss of that long memory which deprives…

Dreams

Image

Every good educator knows that true teaching is to teach kids how to ask the right questions.

Education

Image

I tramped. When I was on the freight trains, I wasn't looking for work. I was looking to go from place to…

Any

Image

You are about to be told one more time that you are America's most valuable natural resource. Have you seen what they…

America

Image

Chris Chandler is the best performance poet I have ever seen.

Best performance

Image

When I was in Utah there, first learning the kind of music I love, my favorite singer was T. Texas Tyler. So…

Calling

Image

Folk music isn't owned by anybody. It is owned by everybody, like the national parks, the postal system, and the school system.…

Common

Image

“These kids don't have a little brother working in the coal mine, they don't have a little sister coughing her lungs out…

Benevolent

Image

I said, "OK, Ammon [Hennacy], I will try that." He said, "You came into the world armed to the teeth. With an…

Angry

Image

Time is an enormous, long river, and I’m standing in it, just as you’re standing in it. My elders are the tributaries,…

Bridges

Image

“Frying-Pan Jack and I were in that camp, that's where he said to me, he'd been tramping since 1927, 'I told myself…

End of the day

Image

“Q: What can people do to defend their civil liberties? Phillips: I'm a pacifist, but the most American thing you can do…

Civil liberties

Image

What I really learned in the army was how to be a pacifist.

Army

Image

When you have an engagement, at least in my world, the world that I create for myself, an engagement doesn't begin when…

Begin

Image

I don't need fame and I don't need power and I don't need wealth. I'm in need of friends, which I have…

Abundance

Image

You came into the world armed to the teeth. With an arsenal of weapons, weapons of privilege, economic privilege, sexual privilege, racial…

Angry

Image

The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free.

Degrees

Image

I'm here to change the world, and if I am not, I am probably wasting my time.

Change the world

Image

I created my own party. It's called the Sloth and Indolence Party, and I'm running as an anarchist candidate in the best…

Anarchist

Image

My pacifism came after I joined the army and was shipped over to Korea. There was a little one-room orphanage there called…

Acknowledge

Image

Cause the profit system follows the path of least resistance and following the path of least resistance is what makes the river…

Causes

Image

Sing your song Dance your dance Tell your story I will Listen and remember

Remember

Image