Bob Dylan: Trending quotes (page 21)

“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, both of their futures so full of dread.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Infidels (1983), Jokerman

Fear , Fools , Angels , Future

“Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool's gold mouthpiece the hollow horn
Plays wasted words, proves to warn
That he not busy being born is busy dying”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

Fools , Business , Suicide

“I can hear another drum beating for the dead that rise, whom Nature's beast fears as they come.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Empire Burlesque (1985), Dark Eyes

Fear , Nature , Dead

“All that foreign oil controlling American soil. Look around you, it's just bound to make you embarrassed: sheiks walking around like kings, wearing fancy jewels and nose rings, deciding America's future from Amsterdam and to Paris.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Slow Train Coming (1979), Slow Train

Future

“All the money you made will never buy back your soul.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963), Masters of War

Money , Soul

“We live in a political world
Where mercy walks the plank,
Life is in mirrors, death disappears
Up the steps into the nearest bank.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Oh Mercy (1989), Political World

Life , Death , World

“There’s seven people dead
On a South Dakota farm
Somewhere in the distance
There's seven new people born”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, The Times They Are A-Changin' (1964), Ballad of Hollis Brown

People , Dead

“Although the masters make the rules
For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, Ma, to live up to”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

Men , Fools

“Capitalism is above the law; it's said it don't count 'less it sells.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Infidels (1983), Union Sundown

Law

“Yes, and how many deaths will it take till he knows that too many people have died?”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963), Blowin' in the Wind

Death , People

“Sometimes you say things in songs even if there's a small chance of them being true. And sometimes you say things that have nothing to do with the truth of what you want to say and sometimes you say things that everyone knows to be true. Then again, at the same time, you're thinking that the only truth on earth is that there is no truth on it. Whatever you are saying, you're saying in a ricky-tick way. There's never time to reflect. You stitched and pressed and packed and drove, is what you did.”

Bob Dylan

Source: Chronicles: Vol. One (2004), p. 220

Truth , Way , Thinking , Chance

“Well, God is in His heaven
And we all want what's his
But power and greed and corruptible seed
Seem to be all that there is
I'm gazing out the window
Of the St. James Hotel
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991 (1991), Blind Willie McTell (recorded 1983)

God , Singing

“Opportunities may come along for you to convert something—something that exists into something that didn't yet.”

Bob Dylan

Source: Chronicles: Vol. One (2004), p. 51

“I could hold you for a million years”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Time Out of Mind (1997), Make You Feel My Love

“And there are no truths outside the Gates of Eden.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Gates of Eden

Truth

“If your memory serves you well, I remember you're the one who called out me to call out them to get your business done.
And after every plan has failed, and there was nothing left to tell, well you knew that we shall meet again if your memory serves you well.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, The Basement Tapes (1975), This Wheel's on Fire (recorded in 1967)

Business , Memory

“Fools glorify themselves, trying to manipulate Satan.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Slow Train Coming (1979), Slow Train

Fools

“I might need a good lawyer, could be your funeral, my trial
Well, I cried for you, now it's your turn, you can cry awhile”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Love and Theft (2001), Cry A While

Cry

“The enemy I see wears a cloak of decency.”

Bob Dylan

Song lyrics, Slow Train Coming (1979), Slow Train

“He's a pinboy. He also wears suspenders. He's a real person. You know him, but not by that name… I saw him come into the room one night and he looked like a camel. He proceeded to put his eyes in his pocket. I asked this guy who he was and he said, "That's Mr. Jones." Then I asked this cat, "Doesn't he do anything but put his eyes in his pocket?" And he told me, "He puts his nose on the ground."”

Bob Dylan

It's all there, it's a true story.
When asked about the meaning of the song "Ballad of a Thin Man" during a 1965 interview.

Guy , Cats , Personality , Night