120+ Best Southern Quotes And Sayings

The South or the southern states of America have attracted interest time and time again because of the way the Southerners live.

Little or more, you always get to hear something or the other that someone said about these old states. According to the US Federal government, the Southern states are Georgia, West Virginia, Alabama, Delaware, Florida, the District of Columbia, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina,Tennessee, Texas, Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland, and Arkansas.

To live a life full of heart and courage is something Southerners believe in. No matter good or bad, one will never know or hear about someone from the South who isn't positive about life.

Sometimes that may be a bit irritating, but we can always learn to live a better way from the Southerners.

And to add to all that, Southerners have that sweet sense of humor that can always make for a better conversation.

But, one may also know about jokes that are said about the Southerners. Humor is a great thing and what better way do we know to celebrate the good old Southern states other than humor about their life, manners, and sometimes even about their house.

Now, drink your sweet tea and look through this full list of quotes on the life and words of the South as you turn into a Southerner and learn to greet everyone with a "Howdy" because as the Southerner would say, "The less said, the better!"

For more quotes and sayings, check out Texas quotes and ['Gone With The Wind' quotes].

Inspirational Southern Quotes

Here you will find inspirational words from the South. These include Southern belle quotes, Southern girl quotes, Southern gentleman quotes:

1. "Annoy a Southerner, and we will give you detailed replies until you are nothing but a husk of your former self."

- Maureen Johnson.

2. "I remember, when I went away to college at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, my aunt sent me a book with the rules of being a Southern Belle. One of the rules was to never wear white after Labor Day."

- Kourtney Kardashian.

3. "We are superior to them, say the northerners, clearly superior. We do not shirk our duties or tell lies as a matter of course, we work hard, we are punctual, we keep reliable accounts."

- Susan Sontag.

4. "Yankees don't understand that the Southern way of talking is a language of nuance."

- Lewis Grizzard.

5. "Our traditions have been waking up on Christmas morning and feasting on a southern breakfast."

- Leigh-Allyn Baker.

6. "Southerners love a good tale. They are born reciters, great memory retainers, diary keepers, letter exchangers... great talkers."

- Eudora Welty.

7. “Only Southerners have taken horsewhips and pistols to editors about the treatment or maltreatment of their manuscript... we no longer succumb to the impulse. But it is still there, within us.”

- William Faulkner.

8. "Southerners. Such literate, civilized folk, such charm and cleverness, and passion for living, such genuine interest in people, all people, high and low."

- Wilton Barnhardt.

9. "Fat kid from Oklahoma, buddy - Southern accent and Bell's palsy, becoming a broadcaster and hanging around a fickle business for 40 years."

- Jim Ross.

10. "Summer in the deep South is not only a season, a climate, it's a dimension. Floating in it, one must be either proud or submerged."

- Eugene Walter.

11. "It goes against Southern ways, not that God is Southern by any stretch of the imagination, but I do think He expects us to be an example for the rest of the country, as far as manners go."

- Vicki Covington.

12. "Southern barbecue is the closest thing we have in the U.S. to Europe's wines or cheeses; drive a hundred miles and the barbecue changes."

- John Shelton Reed

13. "Yankees are pretty much like southerners except with worse manners, of course, and terrible accents."

- Margaret Mitchell, 'Gone With The Wind'.

14. "These southerners know the names of what shrubs hang over what creek, what dogwood flowers bloom what color, what kind of soil is under their feet."

- Natalia Goldberg.

15. "I got southern roots from Texas all the way to Louisiana, went to Grambling State back in the day, my whole career I've done songs with down South artists."

- E-40.

16. "I decided to deflect her attitude by giving a long, Southern answer. I come from people who know how to draw things out."

- Maureen Johnson.

17. "What we can do in the South is we can take a word and change it just a little bit and make it mean something altogether different."

- Lewis Grizzard.

18. "I'm from the South. We eat grits and biscuits and gravy and eggs with Ritz crackers and country ham, bacon, you name it."

- Leigh-Allyn Baker.

19. "Despite the sarcastic remarks of Northerners, who don't know the region, the South of the United States can be so impellingly beautiful that sophisticated creature comforts diminish in importance."

- Maya Angelou.

20. "Memories of my Southern upbringing in Richmond, Virginia, always include the smell of good southern food: fried chicken, cheese grits, Smithfield ham, and buttermilk biscuits."

- Tinsley Mortimer.

21. "Everyone in the South has no time for reading because they are all too busy writing."

- William Faulkner.

22. "In my South, the most treasured things passed down from generation to generation are the family recipes."

- Robert St. John.

23. "Southerners had a long tradition of looking for religious significance in even the most humble forms of nature, and I always preferred the explanations of folklore to the icy interpretations of science."

- Pat Conroy.

24. "The American South is an authentic American Culture. Maybe the last."

- Tim Heaton.

25. "Being Southern isn't talking with an accent...or rocking on a porch while drinking sweet tea, or knowing how to tell a good story. It's how you're brought up."

- Jan Norris.

Funny Southern Quotes

Sometimes, the only way one can know about the good old South is through hilarious words and sayings, from both men and women alike, about the life down there. We are sure you will love at least one of these good and funny sayings and words.

26. "She was so Southern that she cried tears that came straight from the Mississippi."

- Sarah Addison Allen

27. "The proverbial hospitality of the South may be selectively extended but it is not a myth."

- Sally Mann

28. "I'm so Southern that I'm related to myself."

- Ralphie May.

29. "I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted."

- Flannery O'Connor.

30. "No one knows how to hold a grudge like a proper Southerner."

- Charles Blow.

31. "I had a Southern accent but I had broken it so hard."

- Josh Lucas.

32. "My voice is obviously real southern - I automatically lean country."

- Morgan Wallen.

33. "An atheist is a man who watches a Notre Dame vs. Southern Methodist University game and doesn't care who wins."

- Dwight D. Eisenhower.

34. "It's impossible to explain to a Yankee what 'tacky' is. They simply have no word for it up north, but my God, do they ever need one."

- Pat Conroy.

35. "It, the South, prefers the flowery to the plain, likes its own jokes, its own rhetoric. It can laugh at itself at home, but it is immediately riled at any snicker from outside."

- Eugene Walter.

36. "Yankee, n. In Europe, an American. In the Northern States of our Union, a New Englander. In the Southern States the word is unknown."

- Ambrose Bierce.

37. "Yes, sir. I'm a real Southern boy. I got a red neck, white socks, and Blue Ribbon beer."

- Billy Carter.

38. "All Southern cooks have tried their hands at shrimp and grits, and each one has his or her own version of the dish."

- Gina Neely.

39. "Rock was born in the South, so saying 'Southern rock' is like saying 'rock rock.'"

- Duane Allman.

40. "If you talk with a Southern accent, it's perceived as though you are slow. That's not the case. I've met just as many dumb people who talk without an accent as with."

- Jake Peavy.

41. "It's really rare that you come across a Southern character that's not stereotyped, vilified or aggrandized."

- Anson Mount.

42. "The Southern character is opposed to haste. Safety is of more worth than speed, and there is no hurry."

- Maria Mitchell.

43. "O magnet-South! O glistening perfumed South! My South! O quick mettle, rich blood, impulse, and love! Good and evil! O all dear to me!"

- Walt Whitman, 'Leaves Of Grass'.

44. "I'm very Southern in the way I walk in the world. I love to laugh. I love to eat. I love to hug people. But if somebody makes me mad, my neck may roll. I can be aggressive with a Southern twang."

- Katori Hall.

45. "I'm Southern Baptist, not a meteorologist."

- Willard Scott.

Quotes About The Southern States

These words and quotes are from the men and women, who had a life and a homw in these states.

46. "You can say a lot of bad things about Alabama, but you can't say Alabamans as a people are unduly afraid of deep fryers."

- John Green.

47. "Arkansas is a curious and interesting community, probably the most untouched and unawakened of all American states."

- John Gunther.

48. "Just the example Delaware State University graduates set by the way they live their lives, should be an inspiration to other high school students to go to Delaware State."

- Michael N. Castle.

49. "Growing up in Georgia, my dad was a farmer and we worked in agriculture, so we were always looking up at the sky, checking if rain was in the forecast."

- Luke Bryan.

50. "If these United States can be called a body, then Kentucky can be called its heart."

- Jesse Stuart.

51. "Louisiana in September was like an obscene phone call from nature. The air - moist, sultry, secretive, and far from fresh - felt as if it were being exhaled into one's face. Sometimes it even sounded like heavy breathing."

- Tom Robbins.

52. "I'm so proud of Maryland's firefighters, risking their lives to protect others, but we need to protect our protectors with the best equipment training and resources."

- Barbara Mikulski.

53. "To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi."

- William Faulkner.

54. "Barbecue is to North Carolina as the hot dog is to New York."

- Fiona Barton.

55. "Are there any swamps in Oklahoma? Yes, there is. It's called Tulsa."

- Bobby Heenan.

56. "As a child in South Carolina, I spent summers like so many children - sitting on my grandparents' back porch with my siblings..."

- Jacqueline Woodson.

57. “I placed a jar in Tennessee and round it was upon a hill.”

- Wallace Stevens.

58. "The sun doesn't always shine in West Virginia, but the people do."

- Richard Ojeda.

59. "Texas is a state of mind. Texas is an obsession. Above all, Texas is a nation in every sense of the word. And there's an opening convey of generalities. A Texan outside of Texas is a foreigner."

- John Steinback

60. "I grew up in east Tennessee, and everybody knew everybody's business."

- Kenny Chesney.

61. "I was brought up to believe that Scotch whisky would need a tax preference to survive in competition with Kentucky bourbon."

- Hugo Black.

62. "I was raised in South Carolina; I wasn't aware of any art in South Carolina."

- Jasper Johns.

63. "Some folks look at me and see a certain swagger, which in Texas is called 'walking.'"

- George W. Bush.

64. "In Washington, I'm thought of as a conservative, but in Tennessee, I'm thought of as a Bolshevik."

- Howard Baker

65. "In the 1950s in Columbia, South Carolina, it was considered OK for kids to play with weird things."

- Kary Mullis.

66. "Resilience is woven deeply into the fabric of Oklahoma. Throw us an obstacle, and we grow stronger."

- Brad Henry.

67. "I doubt the people of North Carolina will be content to allow the governor to decide or even unduly influence selecting their senator."

- Terry Sanford.

68. "Mississippi is like my mother. I am allowed to complain about her all I want, but God help the person who raises an ill word about her around me, unless she is their mother too."

- Kathryn Stockett.

69. "My father was a preacher in Maryland and we had crab feasts - with corn on the cob, but no beer, being Methodist - outside on the church lawn."

- Tori Amos.

70. "My parents are from small-town Louisiana. It's like, if it walk like a duck, talk like a duck, then it's a duck. And if you ain't quacking, you ain't no duck."

- Bun B.

71. "If the world ends, I'll just head on down to Kentucky because they're always 20 years behind."

- Mark Twain.

72. "For one, the 'countryness' is pretty much in my blood. I'm from Georgia, down south. That voice just lives in me."

- Lil Nas X.

73. "Delaware: a state that has three counties when the tide is out, and two when it is in."

- John James Ingalls.

74. "I cannot prove that God is from Arkansas, but I know for sure that He has family there."

- Jimmy Peacock.

75. "After Alabama football integrated in 1969-70, the South made a greater, more profound change for good, in a shorter period of time than any region in all of world history."

- Steve Travers.

Quotes From Famous Southern Celebrities

We all know celebrities from the South. Unsurprisingly, they have made comments about their life in the Southern states:

76. "The real me is a southern girl with her Levis on and an open heart. Wish I could save the world, like I was supergirl."

- Jessica Simpson.

77. "I like California but I'm dyed-in-the-wool Oklahoma."

- Blake Shelton.

78. "When I was a boy, I would ask about my family history, about my bloodlines. We really didn't know that much. We had a little Indian in us from the Oklahoma Trail of Tears."

- Brad Pitt.

79. "I grew up in Kentucky, but I did not grow up like that. I had heat, and I didn't have to shoot my dinner or anything."

- Jennifer Lawrence.

80. "As a European, I had fit in almost seamlessly in New York for the last 25 years, but in Oklahoma, I stood out like a sore thumb."

- Famke Janssen.

81. "Living in Maryland, I saw that the opportunities were far greater in California than back home."

- Christina Milian.

82. "'Madea' is a Southern term. It's short for 'mother dear.' So there are a lot of Madeas out there."

- Tyler Perry.

83. "Anything can have happened in Oklahoma. Practically everything has."

- Edna Ferber

84. "Once I took a bus from my home in Maryland to Philadelphia to live on the streets with some musicians for a few weeks."

- Olivia Wilde.

85. "North Carolina passed law against global warming science, therefore it's not happening. So I'm ignoring Twitter's 140-character limit, so it's not happ!"

- Stephen Colbert.

86. "I have a 60-acre farm in North Carolina, and I have a tractor and a farmhouse."

- Zach Galifianakis.

87. "Where I live in Oklahoma, it's all ranchers. My friends are all cowboys and pretty rough guys."

- Blake Shelton.

88. "I grew up in Oklahoma and Missouri, and I just loved film."

- Brad Pitt.

89. "You can take the girl out of Texas but not the Texas out of the girl."

- Janine Turner.

90. "But there is a real independence in Texas. When we say it's a country unto its own, it is a little different from the other places in the South."

- Matthew McConaughey.

91. "I try to be like a forest: revitalizing and constantly growing."

- Forest Whitaker.

92. "We all have our purpose, we all have our strengths."

- Beyonce.

93. "I truly believe that the privilege of a lifetime is being who you are."

- Viola Davis.

94. "Everything works out the way the universe wants it to work out."

- Sandra Bullock.

95. "The only creatures that are evolved enough to convey pure love are dogs and infants."

- Johnny Depp.

96. "My children are my life ... It's not like I don't have my own wants and dreams anymore - it's just that the kids come first."

- Angie Harmon.

97. "There is a certain thing that goes about Texans that says, ‘Go, out, use your passport, go travel all around the world, go see other places, go as a Texan, go venture out there.'"

- Matthew McConaughey.

98. "I'm happy that I have my family, and I'm happy that I had Virginia, where I grew up, to retreat to any time I felt overwhelmed."

- Dave Grohl.

99. "You know how they say we only use 10 percent of our brains? I think we only use 10 percent of our hearts."

- Owen Wilson.

100. "Texas is like a beckoning star to American settlers."

- Stephen F. Austin.

Awesome Southern Sayings

Sometimes a good old fashion saying is what you need to say something from the heart. You will find some old common sayings in this list, that include Texas sayings as well.

These sayings are said by both men and women. As these sayings are handed down generation to generation, we do not have sources for these quotes, if you know of any, do let us know!

101. "She's stuck up higher than a light pole."

- Unknown*

102. "She’s as pretty as a peach!"

- Unknown*

103. "She has her nose so high in the air she could drown in a rainstorm."

- Unknown*

104. "He squeezes a quarter so tight the eagle screams."

- Unknown*

105. "He thinks the sun comes up just to hear him crow!"

- Unknown*

106. "You're lower than a snake's belly in a wagon rut."

- Unknown*

107. "He's about as useful as a steering wheel on a mule."

- Unknown*

108. "If brains were leather, he wouldn't have enough to saddle a junebug."

- Unknown*

109. "I'll knock you so hard you'll see tomorrow today."

- Unknown*

110. "I’m about to fly off the handle!"

- Unknown*

111. "She's lost as last year's Easter egg."

- Unknown*

112. "He was so poor, he had a tumbleweed as a pet."

- Unknown*

113. "Busy as a cat on a hot tin roof!"

- Unknown*

114. "You’d call an alligator a lizard."

- Unknown*

115. "If you don't stop that crying, I'll give you something to cry about!"

- Unknown*

116. "I'm as busy as a one-legged cat in a sandbox."

- Unknown*

117. "She was madder than a wet hen!"

- Unknown*

118. "If it had been a snake, it would have bitten me."

- Unknown*

119. "He's having a dying duck fit."

- Unknown*

120. "Texans ain't Texans if they aren't willing to boast about the state they call home."

- Unknown*

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Southern quotes and sayings, then why not take a look at American Dream quotes, or [New York quotes]?

*Do you know where this quote originated? Please email us to let us know at hello@kidadl.com.

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