Top 35 Kris Kristofferson Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Freedom’s just another word for “nothing left to lose”.”

— Kris Kristofferson

2. “I’d trade all my tomorrows for one single yesterday.”

— Kris Kristofferson

3. “If you can’t get out of something, get into it.”

— Kris Kristofferson

4. “Jesus was a Capricorn, he ate organic foods, he believed in love and peace, and never wore no shoes.”

— Kris Kristofferson

5. “And the beer I had for breakfast wasn’t bad, so I had one more for dessert.”

— Kris Kristofferson

6. “If God’s got a favorite songwriter, I think it’s John Prine.”

— Kris Kristofferson

7. “I’d rather be sorry for something I had done than for something I didn’t do.”

— Kris Kristofferson

8. “If God made anything better than women, I think he kept it for himself.”

— Kris Kristofferson

9. “Nothing ain’t worth nothing but it’s free.”

— Kris Kristofferson

10. “I don’t think I’ve gotten any smarter, but your reflexes slow down before you do something stupid when you’re older.”

— Kris Kristofferson

11. “The world he saw was sadder than the one he hoped to find. But it wasn’t near as lonesome as the one he left behind.”

— Kris Kristofferson

12. “You’re the only one that you are screwin’, when you put down what you don’t understand.”

— Kris Kristofferson

13. “The heart is what matters most of all.”

— Kris Kristofferson

14. “You don’t paddle against the current, you paddle with it. And if you get good at it, you throw away the oars.”

— Kris Kristofferson

15. “I’ll only live ’til I die.”

— Kris Kristofferson

16. “The only reality is in the moment. What you are doing counts.”

— Kris Kristofferson

17. “Bad love is better than no love at all, at least you know you’re alive.”

— Kris Kristofferson

18. “As soon as you learn to never give up, you have to learn the power and wisdom of unconditional surrender, and that one doesn’t cancel out the other; they just exist as contradictions. The wisdom of it comes as you get older.”

— Kris Kristofferson

19. “When they prove something wrong you believed in so long, you go crazy.”

— Kris Kristofferson

20. “I want you to know I’m an Army brat; I was a captain in the Army and my brother was a jet pilot in the Navy. So I support our troops; I identify with them. But I sure as hell don’t identify with the bastards who sent them over there.”

— Kris Kristofferson

21. “I’ve been a radical for a long time. I guess it’s too bad. I’d be more marketable as a right-wing redneck.”

— Kris Kristofferson

22. “Just remember that William Blake wasn’t even published in his lifetime. Ya gotta keep creating.”

— Kris Kristofferson

23. “The number one rule of the road is never go to bed with anyone crazier than yourself. You will break this rule and you will be sorry.”

— Kris Kristofferson

24. “I think between us, Bill Clinton and I have settled any lingering myths about the brilliance of Rhodes scholars.”

— Kris Kristofferson

25. “The wolf pack will die when scattered by man, lonesome coyote survives.”

— Kris Kristofferson

26. “I’d lost my family to my years of failing as a songwriter. All I had were bills, child support, and grief. And I was about to get fired. It looked like I’d trashed my act. But there was something liberating about it. By not having to live up to people’s expectations, I was somehow free.”

— Kris Kristofferson

27. “His soul was bigger than a body’s ought to be.”

— Kris Kristofferson

28. “I grew up in a time when people believed in duty, honor and country. My grandfathers were both officers. My father was a General in the Air Force. My brother and I were both in the Army. Ive always felt a kinship with soldiers; I think its possible to support the warrior and be against the war.”

— Kris Kristofferson

29. “If you’re in it because you love it and you have to do it, that’s the right reason. If you’re in it because you want to get rich or famous, don’t do it. People often say that my first years in Nashville, when I wasn’t getting anything cut, were tough. Hell, those were great years.”

— Kris Kristofferson

30. “The closest Ive come to knowing myself is in losing myself. Thats why I loved football before I loved music. I could lose myself in it.”

— Kris Kristofferson

31. “Bombing people for economic reasons is as horrible as killing a pregnant woman.”

— Kris Kristofferson

32. “Johnny Cash has always been larger than life.”

— Kris Kristofferson

33. “There are points in your life, especially if you have creative ambitions, where selfishness is necessary.”

— Kris Kristofferson

34. “There were decades I didn’t play sober. I thought, Who would want to? But at some point, I decided that if it was important enough to me to keep doing it as art, I should do it with all my tools.”

— Kris Kristofferson

35. “I’ll probably be writing as long as I’m breathing.”

— Kris Kristofferson