"I must say as to what I have seen of Texas it is the garden spot of the world. The best land and the best prospects for health I ever saw, and I do believe it is a fortune to any man to come here. There is a world of country here to settle." - Davy Crockett, Alamo defender, 1836.
"I done drew the line. Just like the Alamo. You're either on one side of the line or the other. I don't want to ever leave Texas again!"- Bum Phillips
"The enemy never sees the backs of my Texans!" - General Robert E. Lee, CSA
"I worked around cattle all my life and I guess I learned all there is to know about it, and I think I can sum it all up in one thing: You can't drink coffee on a running horse." - Samuel Brenner, Lubbock, Texas
"The Clinton administration launched an attack on people in Texas because those people were religious nuts with guns. Hell, religious nuts with guns founded this country! Who does Bill Clinton think stepped ashore on Plymouth Rock?" -P.J. O'Rourke.
"Texas does not, like any other region, simply have indigenous dishes. It proclaims them. It congratulates you, on your arrival, at having escaped from the slop pails of the other 49 states." - Alistair Cooke of the BBC on Texas cuisine in The Americans.
"You've got to smell it, and get your fingers burned, and shed a few tears over it, and everything else to get it right. That's the way I look at it." - C.B. Stubblefield famed Texas barbeque master and music lover-promoter on barbeque and life.
"I have said that Texas is a state of mind, but I think it is more than that. It is a mystique closely approximating a religion. And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it and, as in other religions, few people dare to inspect it for fear of losing their bearings in mystery or paradox. But I think there will be little quarrel with my feeling that Texas is one thing. For all its enormous range of space, climate, and physical appearance, and for all the internal squabbles, contentions, and strivings, Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America. Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study and the passionate possession of all Texans." -John Steinbeck, 1962.
"Texas will again lift it's head and stand among the nations. It ought to do so, for no country upon the globe can compare with it in natural advantages." - Sam Houston, War Hero, General, Indian Friend and President of the Republic of Texas.
"A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country". -Texas Guinan, Waco born Broadway/Hollywood starlet and famous speakeasy owner of the 1920's.
"All new states are invested, more or less, by a class of noisy, second-rate men who are always in favor of rash and extreme measures, But Texas was absolutely overrun by such men." - Sam Houston, President of the Republic of Texas and hero of the revolution.
"Texas history is a varied, tempestuous, and vast as the state itself. Texas yesterday is unbelievable, but no more incredible than Texas today. Today's Texas is exhilarating, exasperating, violent, charming, horrible, delightful, alive." - Edna Ferber, author, 1955.
"They say that Virginia is the mother of Texas. We never knew who the father was, but we kinda suspected Tennessee." - Tex Ritter, country music and movie star on the heritage of his home state.
"In Texas, a political speech is sometimes referred to as a longhorn: one that makes two good points, but they are a long way apart and have a lot of bull in between." - Observation recorded by Herring and Richter, Don't Throw Feathers at Chickens.
"If a man's from Texas, he'll tell you. If he's not, why embarrass him by asking?" - Travel writer John Gunther, The Best of Texas.
"Football is to Texas what religion is to a priest."-Legendary Cowboy's Coach Tom Landry.
"Oil rich boys . . . had a nice, sweet smile but when you finished meeting with them your socks were missing and you hadn't even noticed they'd taken your boots." - Actor (and native Texan) Larry Hagman.
"Van Horn [Texas] is so healthy, we had to shoot a man to start a cemetery." - Bill Goynes, who coined this civic slogan for the town of Van Horn, then was gunned down during an argument and was the first man buried in the Van Horn cemetery in 1892.
"You're not a real Texan till you've been kicked out of every decent state in America." - Joe Bob Briggs.
"I'd rather be a fencepost in Texas, than the king of Tennessee." - Chris Wall Texas Singer-Songwriter-Austin.
"A born Texan has instilled in his system a mind-set of no retreat or no surrender. I wish everyone the world over had the dominating spirit that motivates Texans." - Former Texas Speaker of the House Billy Clayton.
"I've traveled all over the world, but I don't think there is any place better than Texas. - Oilwell firefighter Red Adair",
"Like most passionate nations, Texas has its own history based on, but not limited by, facts - John Steinbeck, Travels With Charlie, 1962",
"I am forced to conclude that God made Texas on his day off, for pure entertainment, just to prove that all that diversity could be crammed into one section of earth by a really top hand - Author Mary Lasswell",
"I thought I knew Texas pretty well, but I had no notion of it's size until I campaigned it - Former Governor Ann Richards",
"Texas is neither southern nor western. Texas is Texas - Senator William Blakley",
"If you've ever driven across Texas, you know how different one area of the state can be from another. Take El Paso. It looks as much like Dallas as I look like Jack Nicklaus" - Pro Golfer Lee Trevino.
"I think Texans have more fun than the rest of the world" - Choreographer Tommy Tune.
"I love Texas because Texas is future-oriented, because Texans think anything is possible. Texans think big" - Senator Phil Gramm.
"Houston is, without a doubt, the weirdest, most entertaining city in Texas, consisting as it does of subtropical forest, life in the fast lane, a layer of oil, cowboys and spacemen" - Texas Tourism Guide.
"I feel safer on a racetrack than I do on Houston's freeways" - Car racing legend A.J. Foyt",
"Texans for the most part have never learned to be dull - Randolph Campbell.
"Govern wisely, and as little as possible" – Sam Houston.
"At Odessa we became Texans, and proud of it." – President George Herbert Walker Bush.
"I don't wear no Stetson, but I'm willin' to bet, Son. That I'm a bigger Texan than you are".- Robert Earl Keen.
"My favorite Aggie joke? I'm sorry I don't understand the question" - Singer Lyle Lovett - Texas A&M class of 1979.
"Texas is a state of mind. Texas is an obsession. Above all, Texas is a nation in every sense of the word" - Author John Steinbeck.
"Texas will again lift it's head and stand among the nations. It ought to do so, for no country upon the globe can compare with it in natural advantages."- Sam Houston
"Texas, to be respected must be polite. Santa Anna living, can be of incalculable benefit to Texas Santa Anna dead, would just be another dead Mexican." - Sam Houston
"In the name of the constitution of Texas, which has been trampled upon, I refuse to take this oath. I love Texas too well to bring civil strife and bloodshed upon her." - Sam Houston
"Deep down, I'm a Texas girl looking for that big romance every girl dreams about. Biologically, I look forward to being a cornerstone of a family." - Renee Zellweger
"I'd heard about Texas football and how much of a religion it is, but to go to Odessa and experience it first-hand is something different than just hearing about it." - Jay Hernandez
"Sectional football games have the glory and the despair of war, and when a Texas team takes the field against a foreign state, it is an army with banners." - John Steinbeck
"Some folks look at me and see a certain swagger, which in Texas is called 'walking.' " - George W. Bush
"Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may." - Sam Houston
"There can be no argument about the Lone Star State's significant contributions to American history, and we must remember the actions and the sacrifices of those who made Texas independence a reality." - Michael McCaul
In 1952, Armon M. Sweat, Jr., a member of the Texas House of Representatives, was asked about his position on whiskey. What follows is his exact answer (taken from the Political Archives of Texas):
"If you mean whiskey, the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children if you mean that evil drink that topples Christian men and women from the pinnacles of righteous and gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, shame, despair, helplessness, and hopelessness, then, my friend, I am opposed to it with every fiber of my being."
"However, if by whiskey you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the elixir of life, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes if you mean Christmas cheer, the stimulating sip that puts a little spring in the step of an elderly gentleman on a frosty morning if you mean that drink that enables man to magnify his joy, and to forget life's great tragedies and heartbreaks and sorrow if you mean that drink the sale of which pours into Texas treasuries untold millions of dollars each year, that provides tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitifully aged and infirm, to build the finest highways, hospitals, universities, and community colleges in this nation, then my friend, I am absolutely, unequivocally in favor of it."
"This is my position, and as always, I refuse to compromise on matters of principle."