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Jimmy Buffett Quotes

20 quotes from Jimmy Buffett — Singer-songwriter who turned 'Margaritaville' into a $1B+ lifestyle empire spanning restaurants, resorts, alcohol brand….

Read the full Jimmy Buffett playbook →

“Go fast enough to get there, but slow enough to see.”

Life

“Breathe in, breathe out, move on...”

Perseverance

“Without geography you're nowhere.”

Travel

“I'm growing older, but not up.”

Aging

“If there's a heaven for me, I'm sure it has a beach attached.”

Paradise

“It's a wasted day if you don't learn something.”

Learning

“I'd rather die while I'm living than live while I'm dead.”

Living

“If we weren't all crazy, we would go insane.”

Humor

“The most important thing is to enjoy your life — to be happy — it's all that matters.”

Happiness

“You can't change the world if you don't change yourself.”

Change

“Living in the moment is what it's all about.”

Mindfulness

“I just want to go where the sun is shining.”

Desire

“You kind of have these congeries of people who get together for one reason or another, and then the astonishing thing about growing old is that people basically disperse. We're lucky to have had it happen. Most of us feel those were the best years of our lives.”

— Thomas McGuane, in 'All That Is Sacred'

“I signed a record deal, got married, moved to Nashville, had my guitar stolen, bought a Mercedes, worked at Billboard magazine, put out my first album and went broke. Wrecked the Mercedes, got divorced and moved to Key West. I sang and worked on a fishing boat, went totally crazy, did a lot of dope, met the right girl, made another record, had a hit, bought a boat, and sailed away to the Caribbean.”

— Jimmy Buffett

“What seems like a simple ditty about getting blotto and mending a broken heart turns out to be a profound meditation on the often painful inertia of beach dwelling. The tourists come and go, one group indistinguishable from the other. Waves crest and break whether somebody is there to witness it or not. Everything that means anything has already happened and you're not even sure when.”

— Spin magazine, 2021

“Your life is not a performance. The performance is part of your life.”

— Jimmy Buffett, Rolling Stone, 2020

“I sell escapism. I'm just doing my part to add a little more escapism to an otherwise crazy world.”

— Jimmy Buffett, 60 Minutes, 2004

“The pandemic comes along and I'm gin-clear focused on the things that I actually can do, and the things that I can't do I can't whine about. It's like you getting on a boat: If there's a storm, you can't go back to the hotel and order Eggs Benedict. You gotta get your ass through the storm.”

— Jimmy Buffett, Billboard, 2021

“I was on a quest. I think he'd be very happy that we made it. When you start out, you have to commit to this. It's not a part-time job. In those days, the ratio of success was minuscule. There's a lot of wreckage on the road to success.”

— Jimmy Buffett, Rolling Stone, 2020

“If you can make your avocation your vocation — your life can be blissful.”

— Jimmy Buffett, University of Miami Commencement, 2015

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Jimmy Buffett

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Jimmy Buffett

Singer-songwriter who turned 'Margaritaville' into a $1B+ lifestyle empire spanning restaurants, resorts, alcohol brand…