Category: Texas Culture

“You May All Go To Hell And I Will Go To Texas”
Davy Crockett

“Some folks look at me and see a certain swagger, which in Texas is called ‘walking.’ ”
George W. Bush

“I’ve traveled all over the world, but I don’t think there is any place better than Texas.”
Red Adair

“Football is to Texas what religion is to a priest.”
Tom Landry.

“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

“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, Former Houston Oilers coach

“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, Author 1962.

“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

“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 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 love Texas because Texas is future-oriented, because Texans think anything is possible. Texans think big”
Senator Phil Gramm.

“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

“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

“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, President of the Republic of Texas.

“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, 1836.

“I’d like to be in Texas for Roundup In The Spring”
As sung by many of the greats, including Buck Ramsey, Don Edwards, and Red Steagall.

 In the lobby of a big hotel, in New York town one day,
Sat a bunch of fellers tell’n yarns to pass the time away.
They told of places they had been and different things they’d seen.
Some preferred Chicago and others New Orleans.

In a corner, in an old arm chair, sat a man whose hair was gray.
He listened to them eagerly, to what they had to say.
They asked him where he’d like to be and his clear old voice did ring.
I’d like to be in Texas for the roundup in the spring.

I can see the cattle grazing o’er the hills at early morn,
I can see the campfire smoking at the breaking of the dawn.
I can hear the broncos neighing, I can hear the cowboys sing,
I’d like to be in Texas for the roundup in the spring.

They sat and listened carefully to what he had to say,
For they knew the old man sitting there had been a top hand in his day.
They asked him for a story of his life out on the plains,
Slowly he removed his hat and quietly began.

I’ve seen ‘em stampede over hills till you’d think they’d never stop,
I’ve seen ‘em run for miles and miles until their leader dropped,
I was forman on a cow ranch, the call’n of a king.
I’d like to be in Texas for the roundup in the spring.

I’d like to sleep my last long sleep with mother earth for my bed,
My saddle for a pillow, the bright stars overhead.
Then I could hear the last stampede, the songs of rivers sing,
Way back down in Texas for the round-up in the spring.

I can relate.  Can you?

When you’re from Texas, people that you meet ask you questions like,

“Do you have any cows?”

“Do you have horses?”

“Bet you got a bunch of guns, eh?”

They all want to know if you’ve been to Southfork. They watched Dallas on TV.

Have you ever looked at a map of the world? Look at Texas with me just for a second. That picture, with the Panhandle and the Gulf Coast, and the Red River and the Rio Grande is as much a part of you as anything ever will be. As soon as anyone anywhere in the world looks at it they know what it is. It’s Texas. Pick any kid off the street in Japan and draw him a picture of Texas in the dirt and he’ll know what it is.

In every man, woman and child on this planet, there is a person who wishes just once he could be a real live Texan and get up on a horse or ride off in a pickup. There is some little bit of Texas in everyone.

Texas is the Alamo. Texas is 183 men standing in a church, facing thousands of Mexican nationals, fighting for freedom, who had the chance to walk out and save themselves, but stayed instead to fight and die for the cause of freedom. We send our kids to schools named William B. Travis and James Bowie and Crockett and do you know why? Because those men saw a line in the sand and they decided to cross it and be heroes. John Wayne paid to do the movie himself. That is the Spirit of Texas.

Texas is Sam Houston capturing Santa Ana at San Jacinto.

Texas is “Juneteenth” and Texas Independence Day.

Texas is huge forests of Piney Woods like the Davy Crockett National Forest.

Texas is breathtaking mountains in the Big Bend.

Texas is the unparalleled beauty of bluebonnet fields in the Texas Hill Country.

Texas is the beautiful, warm beaches of the Gulf Coast of South Texas.

Texas is the shiny skyscrapers in Houston and Dallas.

Texas is world record bass from places like Lake Fork.

Texas is Mexican food like nowhere else, not even Mexico.

Texas is the Fort Worth Stockyards, Bass Hall, the Ballpark in Arlington and the Astrodome.

Texas is larger-than-life legends like Michael DeBakey, Denton Cooley, Willie Nelson, Buddy Holly, Waylon Jennings, Janis Joplin, Kris Kristofferson, Tom Landry, Darrell Royal, ZZ Top, Eric Dickerson, Earl Campbell, Nolan Ryan, Sam Rayburn, and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Texas is great companies like Dell Computer, Texas Instruments and Compaq and Lockheed Martin Aerospace, Home of the F-16 Jet Fighter and the JSF Fighter.

Texas is NASA.

Texas is huge herds of cattle and miles of crops.

Texas is skies blackened with doves and fields full of deer.

Texas is ocean beaches, deserts, lakes and rivers, mountains and prairies, and modern cities.

Texas is a place where towns and cities shut down to watch the local High School Football game on Friday nights and for the Cowboys on Monday Night Football, and for the Night In Old San Antonio and their River Parade.

By federal law, Texas is the only state in the U.S. that can fly its Flag at the same height as the U.S. flag. Do you know why? Because it is the only state that was a republic before it became a state.

Also, being a Texan is as high as being an American down here. Our Capitol is the only one in the country that is taller than the capitol building in Washington, D.C. and we can divide our state into five states at any time if we wanted to! We included these things as part of the deal when we came on.

Texas even has its own power grid!!

If it isn’t in Texas, you probably don’t need it.

No one does anything bigger or better than it’s done in Texas.