100+ Quotes by Jimmy Buffett
Jimmy Buffett, a musical storyteller, embodies the carefree spirit of escapism through his music. With a unique blend of country, folk, and tropical influences, Buffett's songs transport listeners to sun-soaked beaches, swaying palm trees, and a laid-back way of life. His signature track "Margaritaville" has become an anthem for those seeking solace from the daily grind. Beyond the music, Buffett's brand extends into literature, restaurants, and a lifestyle centered on embracing leisure and adventure. He has cultivated a devoted fanbase known as "Parrotheads," who embrace his philosophy of living life to the fullest. Through his music and persona, Jimmy Buffett reminds us of the value of finding joy in simplicity and cherishing the moments of serenity that life offers.
Jimmy Buffett Quotes
I have always looked at life as a voyage, mostly wonderful, sometimes frightening. In my family and friends I have discovered treasure more valuable than gold.
Sail the main course in a simple sturdy craft. Keep her well stocked with short stories and long laughs. Go fast enough to get there but slow enough to see. Moderation seems to be the key.
It's those changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes nothing remains quite the same. With all of our running and all of our cunning, if we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane.
If there’s a heaven for me, I’m sure it has a beach attached.
Oh, yesterdays are over my shoulder, So I can't look back for too long. There's just too much to see waiting in front of me, and I know that I just can't go wrong.
Go fast enough to get there, but slow enough to see.
Be yourself, be pleasant, play hard and have no regrets.
Grief is like the wake behind a boat. It starts out as a huge wave that follows close behind you and is big enough to swamp and drown you if you suddenly stop moving forward. But if you do keep moving, the big wake will eventually dissipate. And after a long time, the waters of your life get calm again, and that is when the memories of those who have left begin to shine as bright and as enduring as the stars above.
We got to roll with the punches, play all of our hunches, make the best of whatever comes your way. Forget that blind ambition, learn to trust your intuition - plowing straight ahead, come what may.
With you, I would walk anywhere
later down the road of life, i made the discovery that salt water was also good for the mental abrasions one inevitably acquires on land.
It takes no more time to see the good side of life than to see the bad.
Therapy is extremely expensive. Popping bubble wrap is radically cheap.
I'd like to be a jellyfish, 'cause jellyfish don't pay rent.
Wrinkles will only go where the smiles have been.
Fun is about as good a habit as there is.
It's important to have as much fun as possible while we're here. It balances out the times when the minefield of life explodes.
If life gives you limes, make margaritas.
Without geography you're nowhere.
Some of it's magic and some of it's tragic but I had a good life all the way.
Bryl-cream, a little dab will do you.
Searching is half the fun: life is much more manageable when thought of as a scavenger hunt as opposed to a surprise party.
When the good times come around, they gallup in like wild horses. You just try to stay on them for as long as you can. And when they throw you offyou just wait in the shade until they come around again.
I'd rather die while I'm living then live while I'm dead.
Indecision may or may not be my problem.
Only time will tell if it was time well-spent
I'm growing older, but not up.
My voyage was never a well-conceived plan, nor will it ever be. I have made it up as I went along.
I'm living on things that excite me, be they pastry, or lobster, or love...
I'm going back to my parrot head friends.
There's a little bit of fruitcake left in everyone of us.
Some make the world go round; others watch it turn.
The stores and the things like that, the business side of things came out at the point when, I'd say probably in the early '70s, it looked like the year of the singer-songwriter was over, 'cause music changed in our time and the spotlight was out.
Shells sink, dreams float. Life's good on our boat.
Breathe in, breathe out, move on.
The ocean has always been a salve to my soul.
If we couldn't laugh, we would all going to go insane.
Forget that blind ambition, and learn to trust your intuition.
I just want to live happily ever after, every now and then.
I've got a Caribbean soul I can barely control, and some Texas hidden here in my heart!
Some people think there's a woman to blame, but I know - it's my own damn fault
People who think too much before they act don't act too much.
And there's that one particular harbor Sheltered from the wind Where the children play on the shore each day And all are safe within.
Mother, mother ocean, I have heard you call. Wanted to sail upon your waters, since I was three feet tall. You've seen it all, you've seen it all. Watched the men who rode you, switch from sails to steam. In your belly, you hold the treasure that few have ever seen, most of them dreams, most of them dreams.
Elvis was the only man from Northeast Mississippi who could shake his hips and still be loved by rednecks, cops, and hippies.
It was too much Tequila, or not quite enough.
Pack your bags, we're going on a guilt trip!
Where it all ends I can't fathom, my friends. If I knew, I might toss out my anchor.
As a dreamer of dreams and a travelin' man, I have chalked up many a mile. Read dozens of books about heroes and crooks, and I learned much from both of their styles.
Give me oysters and beer, for dinner every day of the year, and I'll be fine.
If the phone doesn't ring, it's me.
It takes just as little time to see the positive side of life as it does the negative side.
It's a fine line between Saturday night and Sunday morning.
I can only say the first thing that pops into my mind is I remember, years ago, seeing kind of a has-been country singer working - when I first moved to Nashville - in a bar in a Holiday Inn.
I've always been trying to write songs like Lightfoot. A song of mine like 'Come Monday' is a direct result of me trying to write a Gordon Lightfoot song.
One of the inescapable encumbrances of leading an interesting life is that there have to be moments when you almost lose it.
I've always found drugs and alcohol somewhat pedestrian. It's like, I don't need an external agent to open my mind. I'm here, conscious, alert, present. Why would I alter that?
The weather is here Wish you were beautiful.
What would Pop-eye do in a tight spot like this?
Love is a wave building to a crescendo. Ride if you will, ride it with me.
I'm inspired by people who keep on rolling, no matter their age.
I ain't no drinking man, but temptation got the best of me.
Any attempts at autobiography before the age of eighty seem pretty self-involved to me. There are a lot of smart middle aged people but not many wise ones.
If I couldn't laugh, I just would go insane. If we couldn't laugh, we just would go insane. If we weren't all crazy, we would go insane.
We're just recycled history machines, cavemen in faded blue jeans.
I was hungry and went out for a bite, ran into a chum with a bottle of rum and we wound up drinking all night.
I still consider it a summer job, though. So, I try to maintain that summer job as long as I can. But it's exciting to be able to have the opportunity to do things I always dreamed of as a kid.
You better lava me now or lava me not.
There's a strange sense of pleasure being beat to hell by a storm when you're on a ship that is not going to sink.
Older and wiser voices can help you find the right path, if you are only willing to listen.
Whether it's a letter, song lyrics, part of a novel, or instructions on how to fix a kitchen sink, it's writing. You keep your craft honed, you acquire the discipline to finish things. You turn into a self-taskmaster.
Our children may save us if they are taught to care properly for the planet; but if not, it may be back to the Ice Age or the caves from where we first emerged. Then we'll have to view the universe above from a cold, dark place. No more jet skis, nuclear weapons, plastic crap, broken pay phones, drugs, cars, waffle irons, or television. Come to think of it, that might not be a bad idea.
And you find as a writer there are certain spots on the planet where you write better than others, and I believe in that. And New Orleans is one of them.
We are the people our parents warned us about.
Well, I'm still here. Didn't have to go to rehab, and I'm not broke.
Lights are glowing in the palm trees.
I slowly surrender to the child in me who can't say goodbye.
Is it ignorance or apathy? Hey, I don't know and I don't care.
We need more fruitcakes in this world, and less bakers!
Don't try to describe the ocean if you've never seen it.
My head hurts, my feet stink, and I don't love Jesus. It's that kind of morning.
I have never cared about setting world records, or filling my boat with fish, or, for that matter, even catching fish. I go for the experience of spending six hours in the arms of the ocean, never thinking of a single thing except chasing fish.
I've done a bit of smuggling, I've run my share of grass. I made enough money to buy Miami, but I piss it away so fast.
find yourself a lover who will glue you to the floor
Whatever thrills you, anything you love to do, just say - Someday, I will.
I'm getting old, don't wear underwear, and I don't go to church.
I hate to mention age, but I come from an era when we weren't consumed by technology and television. My mother insisted that her children read. To describe my scarce leisure time in today's terms, I always default to reading.
Under the heavens and under the sea there's a friend I don't know, who holds the right key.
Humor has bailed me out of more tight situations than I can think of. If you go with your instincts and keep your humor, creativity follows. With luck, success comes, too.
Tonight I just need my guitar.
The right combination of guilt and machismo has sent many a fool out into the jungle when he should have stayed home.
There will always be those who feel more comfortable not venturing from the warmth of the hearth, but there are those who prefer to look out the window and wonder what is beyond the horizon.
I got a PBS mind in an MTV world.
If it doesn't work out there will never be any doubt that the pleasure was worth all the pain.
There's damsels in distress out there, and we got all this beer.
At 57, to have a No. 1 album, I wasn't expecting it.
Be good, and you will be lonesome, be lonesome and you will be free. Live a lie and you will live to regret it, that's what living is to me.
This morning I shot six holes in my freezer. I think I've got cabin fever.
When reality looks too ugly, fantasize.
I recommend that you try a little mental floss.
I hate to mention age, but I come from an era when we weren't consumed by technology and television.
I want to keep going as I have, to travel, read, perform, write, and enjoy my family. I've promised myself only this: no more Laundromats, no more two-shows-a-night, and no more deadlines. I'll work at my own pace.
There's no 'dumb-ass' vaccine.
Yes, I am a pirate, two hundred years to late. Cannons don't thunder, there's nothing to plunder, I'm an over forty victim of fate.
I got my hush puppies on. I guess I never was made meant for glitter rock and roll.
Songwriters write songs, but they really belong to the listener.
I remember the excruciating school task of writing a three-page term paper. But, oh, that feeling when I was done! I think I drive myself for that feeling of accomplishment.
I still believe in rock and roll, it pays my bills.
Found a shaman in a diaper with a poppy pot. When I asked if he was cold, he said just think hot.
Maybe there is another who sees life not as a flickering candle but as a torch that can illuminate an undiscovered world.
If I don't die by Thursday, I'll be roaring Friday night.
That to me is the way any good romantic would look at his life: Live it first, then write it down before you go.
Yes, I am a pirate two hundred years too late.
I know a girl made of memories and phrases, lives her whole life in chapters and phases.
Today there are two Madonnas, our lady of Fatima over here and that woman from Michigan.
There's something missing in the music industry today... and it's music. Songs you hear don't last, it's just product fed to you by the industry.
The beautiful people in the magazines, got the normal ones living beyond their means.
When they tried to draft me, I earned a college degree.
I was suppose to be a Jesuit priest or a naval academy graduate.
Gluttony, do not eat thy neighbor's wife's popcorn.
What if life is just a cosmic joke, like spiders in your underwear.
We're wanted men, we'll strike again, but first let's have a beer.
Is it time for your medication or mine?
Moderation is the key so I work certain amout of time and then I take a certain amount of time off.
I have been drunk now for over two weeks.
Quitting doesn't enter my mind.
Live a lie, and you will live to regret it; that's what livin' is to me.
These old ballparks are like cathedrals in America. We don't have big old Gothic cathedrals like they do in Europe. But we got baseball parks.
Barmaid, bring a pitcher, another round of brew. Honey, why don't we get drunk and screw?
Why don't we get drunk and screw?
If we weren't all crazy, we'd just go insane.
It's my job to be better than the rest, and that's enough reason to go for me. It's my job to be better than the rest, and that makes the day for me.
Mother Mother Ocean, I have heard your call.
You've been acting like Jesus owes you a favor, but he's a little smart for you to fool.
Life was just a tire swing. 'Jambalaya' was the only song I could sing. Blackberry pickin', eatin' fried chicken, And I never knew a thing about pain. Life was just a tire swing.
I arm myself with punch lines and a big old water gun.
Nobody else cares about you at the beginning of your career except you-and, of course, your mother. Your mother is there because that is what mothers do.
You know Death will get you in the end, but if you are smart and have a sense of humor, you can thumb your nose at it for awhile
The only thing that is still free in this world is religion, which is why a lot of people "find it.
While my mind is flexible, these brittle bones don't bend.
My only contact with the outside world was an RCA Victrola, and Elvis would sing, and then I'd dream about expensive cars.
If someone wants a piece of you, never let them pay. What you do not give to them time takes anyway.
The cheating was sweet, but my heart is beat. Don't tear it apart, please by-pass this heart.
Truth is stranger than fishing.
― Jimmy Buffett Quotes
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
