Southern Sayin’s: Quotes

The South is chock full of good wisdom, tidbits from momma, and a few classic “you might be a, ahem, (I hate this word)… redneck if” jokes. We’ve got good sayin’s galore, so here’s a treasury of them. A place we can all list our favorites. Do share!

“… this is the South, we encumber you with hospitality.” – The Firm

“Perhaps no bread in the world is quite as good as Southern corn bread, and perhaps no bread in the world is quite as bad as the Northern imitation of it.” – Mark Twain

“Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion.” -Truvy from Steel Magnolias

“Any Southener worth his piecrust knows that White Lily is the only flour worth stocking in the larder.”
Richard David Story, New York magazine

“I’m from the south. Flirting is part of my heritage.”  –Blanche, The Golden Girls

“Dreams, if they’re any good, are always a little crazy.” – Ray Charles

“Anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic.” -Flannery O’Connor

“Grace changes us and change is painful.” -Flannery O’Connor

“…I believe if something is good, you can do things with words and lift yourselves out of the gutter…” – Dixie Carter

“Growing up Southern is a privilege, really. It’s more than where you’re born, it’s an idea and state of mind that seems imparted at birth. Its more than loving fried chicken, sweet tea, football, beer, bourbon and country music. It’s being hospitable, devoted to front porches, magnolias, moon pies and coca-cola, and each other. We don’t become Southern, we’re born that way.” -Anonymous

“It is a sign of maturity… to find explanations in charity.” – Flannery O’Connor

“To describe our growing up in the lowcountry of South Carolina, I would have to take you to the marsh on a spring day, flush the great blue heron from its silent occupation, scatter marsh hens as we sink to our knees in mud, open an oyster with a pocketknife and feed it to you from the shell and say, ‘There. That taste. That’s the taste of my childhood.'” -Pat Conroy, The Prince of Tides

“The piano may do for love-sick girls who lace themselves to skeletons, and lunch on chalk, pickles and slate pencils, but give me the banjo.” – Mark Twain

I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure. – Mark Twain

You’ll be my sugar baby
I’ll be your sweet iced tea
You’ll be my honeysuckle
I’ll be your honey bee

-Blake Shelton “Honey Bee”