120+ Best California Quotes About The Golden State

We all want to travel to places which offer all sorts of happiness in their own unique way.

A trip to California will definitely be worth your time. The state as a lot to offer that gives it the title as the Golden state.  

California is a western state of the US that is known for its success in agriculture. The state constitutes acres of farmland and 45% of the global tree population. It is also a famous tourist state. Hollywood, the Golden Gate Bridge, Disneyland, Yosemite National Park, Alcatraz and Angel Island are few tourist destinations among many. These California quotes will encourage you to travel to the state at the earliest. But before you go, you must read this article to know fantastic sayings about California.

You may also like Patriotic quotes and Inspiring Quotes about America.

The golden state of California inspires many people every year with its charm. Even singers mention it in their songs. The Red Hot Chili Peppers had numerous songs inspired by California. Read below to find out some of the popular California quotes and California Instagram captions.

1. “You could travel the world, but nothing comes close to the golden coast."

— Katy Perry, 'California Girls'

2. “I just found out her ghost left town, the Queen of California is stepping down."

— John Mayer, 'Queen of California'

3. “In Los Angeles, everyone is a star."

— Denzel Washington

4. “My heart cried out for you, California."

— Joni Mitchell, 'California'

5. “She stood there bright as the sun on that California coast."

— Bob Seger, 'Hollywood Nights'

6. “You haven’t lived until you’ve died in California."

- Mort Sahl

7. “Things are tough all over, cupcake, an’ it rains on the just an’ the unjust alike…except in California."

– Alan Moore

8. “I suddenly realized I was in California. Warm, palmy air – air you can kiss – and palms."

– Jack Keroua

9. “The light was different here in California."

– Heidi Freeston

10. “Everything is just better in California – the wine, the food, fruits and vegetables, the comforts of living. Even the instrumentalists are generous and curious. Everything is wonderful."

- Beth Anderson

11. “In California gold was what God was in the rest of the country: everything, everywhere."

– Claire Vaye Watkins

12. “California was almost entirely a dream, a dream vague but deep in the minds of westering people."

– Bernard DeVoto

13. “To capture a California sunset in South Pasadena is to hold an angel’s wings with bated breath."

- Ace Antonio Hall

14. “I’m a Texas girl, with a California soul."

– Crystal Woods

15. “When I came to California, it was the mecca of the world. Every young person on the planet wanted to be here."

- Joni Mitchell

16. “There are so many different challenges California has; it’s the greatest state in the greatest country in the world.”

– Arnold Schwarzenegger

17. “I love driving; driving along the California coastline is the best drive in the world."

– Al Jardine

18. “We only have two kinds of weather in California, magnificent and unusual."

– James M Cain

19. “Living in California adds ten years to a man’s life. And those extra ten years I’d like to spend in New York."

– Harry Ruby

20. “Best way to live in California is to be from somewhere else."

– Cormac McCarthy

21. “I am a California girl, born and raised, so flip-flops and cutoff shorts are my go-to look."

– Meghan Markle

22. “In California, we have some of the strongest consumer protection laws in the country. While it is easy to conceive of innovation and regulation as mutually exclusive, California is proof that we can do both. We can innovate responsibly."

– Kamala Harris

23. “I’m your biggest fan, California, I’m coming home”

– Joni Mitchell, 'California'

24. “Why don’t you go on west to California? There’s work there, and it never gets cold. Why, you can reach out anywhere and pick an orange. Why, there’s always some kind of crop to work in. Why don’t you go there?”

– John Steinbeck, 'The Grapes of Wrath'

25. “California, where the spring comes in the fall and the fall comes in the summer and the summer comes in the winter and the winter never comes at all."

— Inez Haynes Irwin

26. “Made up my mind to make a new start, going to California with an aching in my heart."

— Led Zeppelin, 'Going to California'  

27. “California: bordering always on the Pacific and sometimes on the ridiculous. So, why do I live here? Because the sun goes down a block from my house."

— George Carlin

28. “Dean’s California — wild, sweaty, important, the land of lonely and exiled and eccentric lovers come to forgather like birds, and the land where everybody somehow looked like broken-down, handsome, decadent movie actors."

— Jack Kerouac, 'On the Road'

29. “Nature. That’s the one thing that tips the balance in terms of living here in California. Within minutes, I can be in a desert, at the ocean, in a park, and that’s the most nourishing food for my soul."

– Lara Pulver

30. “This is the California that men dreamed of years ago, this is the pacific that Balboa looked at from the peak of Darien, this is the face of the earth as the creator intended it to look."

– Henry Miller

31. “I just realized some things make me happier, and the good weather in California makes me happier."

– Bianca Balti

32. “California, still a magical vanity fair."

– Eileen Granfors

33. “California is where you get to start over."

– Tracy Chevalier

34. “I think California has the best energy."

– Kevin Gates

35. “If they can’t do it in California, it can’t be done anywhere."

– Taylor Caldwell

36. “There is science, logic, reason; there is thought verified by experience. And then there is California."

– Edward Abbey

37. “California deserves whatever it gets. Californians invented the concept of life-style. This alone warrants their doom."

– Don Delillo

38. “Whether they’re for good or bad, all trends in the United States start in California."

– Steve Schmidt

39. "I’m a California girl, even if I try and cover it up with leather."

— Gigi Hadid

40. “I was trying to pay the bills with poems, and it was easy to memorize my poems, because I'd be riding my bike in California trying to memorize them before going on stage at a poetry lounge."

- Omari Hardwick

41. “Whatever starts in California unfortunately has an inclination to spread."

- Jimmy Carter

42. “I love California, I practically grew up in Phoenix."

- Dan Quayle

43. “The mornings along the coast where the fog and mist meet with the salty spray of the seas is one of my favourite smells. I love the smell in the evergreen forest just after it rains - The Redwood Forest in California has the coast, too, so you have the best of everything!”

- Paul Walker

44. “Every time I come, I'm still amazed at the breadth California has. Big Sur, Yosemite, the desert... I love it."

- Theo James

45. “The apparent ease of California life is an illusion, and those who believe the illusion real live here in only the most temporary way."

- Joan Didion

46. “I'm not really a Hollywood person. Not that I don't like L.A., but I'm just a Northern California guy."

- Clint Eastwood

47. “The two girls grew up at the edge of the ocean and knew it was paradise, and better than Eden, which was only a garden."

― Eve Babitz, ‘Sex and Rage: Advice to Young Ladies Eager for a Good Time: A Novel’

48. “God will break California from the surface of the continent like someone breaking off a piece of chocolate. It will become its own floating paradise of underweight movie stars and dot-commers, like a fat-free Atlantis with superfast Wi-Fi."

― Laura Ruby, ‘Bad Apple’

These California quotes are worthy of Instagram captions. Quotes about California can't be complete without talking about the incredible beaches, travel, exploring, and more. One cannot resist posting pictures there. Here are some California quotes that you can use as California Instagram captions for your followers. You can also find cute California beach quotes here. Feed your wanderlust with these quotes and Instagram captions.

49. “It’s the easiest thing in the world to get to California-you just aim yourself west and start walking."

–Rae Carson

50. “When California was wild, it was the floweriest part of the continent."

– John Muir

51. “Life in California is beautiful."

– Oscar Nunez

52. “California is always in my mind."

– David Hockney

53. “I love California. It definitely represents wild freedom."

– Jenny O.

54. “I like to go for a little drive up the California coast."

– Colin Farrell

55. “All creative people should be required to leave California for three months every year."

– Gloria Swanson

56. “Not all clouds fit over the ocean. Rain finds the lemon tree but rarely in California."

– Emily Vizzo

57. “Do Re Mi California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see, But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot If you ain't got the do re mi."

-Woody Guthrie

58. “California is an unbelievable state."

- Drew Barrymore

59. “The attraction and superiority of California are in its days. It has better days, and more of them, than any other country."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

60. “There's nothing wrong with Southern California that a rise in the ocean level wouldn't cure."

- Ross MacDonald

61. “All scenery in California requires distance to give it charm."

- Mark Twain

62. “When a tree takes a notion to grow in California, nothing in Heaven or on earth will stop it."

- Lilian Leland

63. “California to me as a concept or as an idea always seems like endless optimism and endless opportunity - when people think of California they think of palm trees and blue skies and gorgeous sunsets and beaches and everything else."

- Mark Hoppus

64. “As one went to Europe to see the living past, one must visit Southern California to observe the future."

- Alison Lurie

65. “California is an Italy without its art."

- Oscar Wilde

66. “Everyone in California is from somewhere else."

- Wright Morris

67. “All of a sudden, I feel very old and very tired. Maybe when I get to California, the smog, brush fires, floods, and earthquakes will cheer me up."

- Erma Bombeck

68. “Everyone who comes to California brings a little of his own state with him. His own old state, regardless of where or when, is always lurking in the back of his memory for comparison with what he finds here."

– Max Miller

These California quotes will tell you some interesting facts about the state from a more real perspective. Take a look at these California quotes below!

69. “And you know something, because everything that I’ve gotten – my career, my money, my family; everything that I’ve gotten and achieved is because of California."

– Arnold Schwarzenegger

70. “California is one of the strongest states with one of the solidest economies but, at the same time, ignores the reality of its farmworkers."

– Diego Luna

71. “California is a queer place in a way, it has turned its back on the world, and looks into the void Pacific. It is absolutely selfish, very empty, but not false, and at least, not full of false effort."

– D. H. Lawrence

72. “California is going to be quite good for the Democrats. But the rest of the country is a draw."

- Stuart Rothenberg

73. “Southern California, where the American Dream came too true."

- Lawrence Ferlinghetti

74. “California can and does furnish the best bad things that are obtainable in America."

- Hinton R. Helper

75. “It was, of course, the discovery of gold that got California off to a flying start, and set in motion its chain-reaction, explosive, self-generating pattern of development."

- Carey McWilliams

76. “Californians tend to be outspoken. When the great migration began, the more timid people must have stayed home, and the bolder ones headed west."

- Shana Alexander

77. “California is a place of invention, a place of courage, a place of vision, a place of the future. People who made California what it is were willing to take risks, think outside convention and build."

- Nicolas Berggruen

78. “The biggest problem that we have is that California is being run now by special interests. All of the politicians are not anymore making the moves for the people, but for special interests and we have to stop that."

- Arnold Schwarzenegger

79. “California is our biggest economy. California is our biggest agricultural producer. So what happens here matters to every working American."

- Barack Obama

80. “California produces 40% of America's fresh fruits, vegetables and nuts - the kind you eat. We have had a bumper crop of the other variety, too."

- Ronald Reagan

California is a cheerful and joyful place to live in. So read the California quotes below to know the fun side of the Golden State by the people who know it too well. You will also be able to find Southern California quotes in here.

81. “California people are quitters. No offense. It’s just you’ve got restlessness in your blood."

–Claire Vaye Watkins

82. “California is full of homesick people."

– Judy Van Der Veer

83. “I’d rather be in prison in California than free anywhere else."

– Inez Haynes Irwin

84. “Los Angeles? That’s just a big parking lot where you buy a hamburger for the trip to San Francisco."

— John Lennon

85. “It’s a scientific fact that if you stay in California you lose one point of your IQ every year."

– Truman Capote

86. "California, here we come. Right back where we started from."

— Phantom Planet, California

87. "I'm going back to Cali."

— LL Cool J, 'Going Back To Cali'

88. “California is a fine place to live - if you happen to be an orange."

- Fred Allen

89. “A large part of Canada heads for Florida, California, and Hawaii in the winter to get away from the snow."

- Margaret MacMillan

90. “I wouldn’t live in California. All that sun makes you sterile."

– Alan Alda

91. “In California the only way to look like you are getting older is to look like you are getting younger…if you can move your forehead over the age of forty, then people become very suspicious."

– Matt Haig

92. “A new study says that over half of all Californians are obese. In fact, half of Californians are really two-thirds of Californians."

– Jay Leno

93. “In California, they don’t throw their garbage away – they make it into TV shows."

– Woody Allen

94. “In California everyone goes to a therapist, is a therapist, or is a therapist going to a therapist. "

– Truman Capote

95. “California is a place where they shoot too many pictures and not enough actors."

– Walter Winchell

96. “Santa Barbara is pleasant. It’s heaven, but with a bit more traffic."

– Matt Haig

97. “California is where you can’t run any farther without getting wet."

– Neil Morgan

98. “'Hey boys, come up here!' Lee’s excited shout bounced from rock to rock down the gulch. 'I’ve got all of California right here in this pan!'”

– Phyllis Flanders Dorset, 'The New Eldorado'

99. “Ninety-five percent of all brussels sprouts come from California."

- Danny Meyer

100. “The men of California are thriftless, proud, and extravagant, and very much given to gaming; and the women have but little education, and a good deal of beauty, and their morality, of course, is none of the best."

- Richard Henry Dana Jr

101. “Californians try everything once."

- T. J. MacGregor

102. “Secretly, I think everyone who makes fun of California really does want to be in California."

- Zooey Deschanel

Located in Northern California, San Francisco is a popular tourist city in the state. Here are some California quotes and sayings about this beautiful city.

103. "San Francisco is the only city I can think of that can survive all the things you people are doing to it and still look beautiful."

— Frank Lloyd Wright

104. "San Francisco is poetry. Even the hills rhyme."

— Pat Montandon

105. “If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair."

— Scott McKenzie, 'San Francisco'

106. "I’m just mad for San Francisco. It is like London and Paris stacked on top of each other."

— Twiggy

107. “I left my heart in San Francisco."

— Tony Bennett, 'I Left My Heart In San Francisco'

108. “San Francisco is 49 square miles surrounded by reality."

— Paul Kanter

109. “It’s an odd thing, but anyone who disappears is said to be seen in San Francisco."

— Oscar Wilde

110. “You are fortunate to live here. If I were your President, I would levy a tax on you for living in San Francisco."

— Mikhail Gorbachev

111. “There may not be a Heaven, but there is San Francisco."

— Ashleigh Brilliant

112. “It seemed like a matter of minutes …suddenly reached a height and saw stretched out ahead of us the fabulous white city of San Francisco on her eleven mystic hills with the blue Pacific and its advancing wall of potato-patch fog beyond, and smoke and goldenness in the late afternoon of time."

― Jack Kerouac, 'On the Road'

113. “Now there’s a grown-up swinging town."

— Frank Sinatra

114. “Maybe in San Francisco it wouldn’t feel like the universe was conspiring to keep me in a bubble."

– Heather Demetrios

115. “I’ve never been somewhere I belonged, but there are places where I think I could be happy. Like San Francisco. Well, do art museums count? Because I feel like I belong in them."

– Heather Demetrios

116. “San Francisco has only one drawback: ’tis hard to leave."

– Rudyard Kipling

You will be familiar with Los Angeles or LA mostly if you are a Hollywood fan. The city is one of the famous places of this golden state. Read some of the California quotes and Instagram captions about this city.

117. “When I came to Los Angeles, it was the first time that I ever felt like I belonged somewhere."

— Jennifer Love Hewitt

118. “I love Los Angeles, it reinvents itself every two days."

— Billy Connolly

119. “Tip the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles."

— Frank Lloyd Wright

120. “Darling, in LA, you decide who you are. Every neighborhood has its own culture and population. Once you find the right one for you, you’re home. Los Angeles is a way of life."

–Cara Dee

121. “While I’m in L.A. I always make time for my favorite activity which is hiking. The trails in California are amazing, as they are always challenging, and I never get bored from all the beautiful scenery."

– Dylan Lauren

122. “Los Angeles has no seasons, so it’s kind of hard to keep track of time here. The lines between spring, summer, fall, and winter all blur like my vision. I get stuck on repeat for different measures of eternity."

— Kris Kudd

123. “You got that special kind of sadness, you got that tragic set of charms that only comes from time spent in Los Angeles, makes me wanna wrap you in my arms."

— Dawes, 'Time Spent in Los Angeles'

124. “Los Angeles is 72 suburbs in search of a city."

– Dorothy Parker

125. “Los Angeles was the kind of place where everybody was from somewhere else and nobody really dropped anchor. It was a transient place. People drawn by the dream, people running from the nightmare. ….everybody in L.A. keeps a bag packed. Just in case."

― Michael Connelly, ‘The Brass Verdict’

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for California Quotes, then why not take a look at African American quotes or Alaska quotes