Janis Joplin’s 30 best quotes: the bohemian side of life

This American singer associated with the hippie movement left us interesting reflections.

Janis Joplin was an important American singer in the sixties who became the first woman to be considered a Rock and Roll star. Also known as the cosmic witch or the white lady of the blues, she was in her time a symbol of the counterculture that stood out for her intensity and unbridled lifestyle.

Throughout her short life (she died at the age of twenty-seven), this young singer would make several reflections on various topics. For this reason, and to better understand her thought and philosophy, in this article we leave you with a selection of Janis Joplin's phrases..

The best phrases and reflections of Janis Joplin

The following is a series of phrases and reflections of this well-known singer, who expressed in her songs her need to love and be free and reflected in them part of her history and feelings. Most of them talk about aspects and themes such as love, freedom, acceptance of what is different and emotion..

I just want to feel as much as I can, that's all the soul is about.

For Janis Joplin, feelings and experience were really important aspects, especially when it came to the search for romantic love.

Everyone has to settle for something at some point. You can't have it all and you can't go on without jeopardizing your whole life.

This phrase expresses that although we should strive for what we want, we should try to have realistic expectations and not get frustrated by not getting everything we would like.

3. However, you should not settle for less than what makes you happy. Instead of choosing what you think is best, you already know that you have what you need when happiness arrives.

A continuation of the previous sentence, it expresses that knowing that we cannot have everything we want does not imply that we have to settle for anything: we should always look for something that makes us happy. We should not choose for what we think will be better, but for what we feel fulfills us.

4. It's hard to be free, but when it works, it's worth it!

Being the way we are in our life and fighting for what we want fight for what we want leads us to feel free..

5. On stage I make love to 25000 different people. Then I go home alone

Loneliness was a frequent feeling in the life of the white lady of the blues. This phrase exemplifies that professional success is not associated with personal success and that many people only love one part of us and ignore the rest.

6. Do you know the reason why it is thought that only colored people have souls? Because white people don't allow themselves to feel with their souls.

The singer was born and raised in a strongly racist environment in which there was racial segregation and persecution and mistreatment of people of color, things she opposed.

7. Being an intellectual creates a lot of questions and no answers.

The search for knowledge does not necessarily imply finding answers, but asking new questions. One of Janis Joplin's phrases reflecting on wisdom..

8. Here I am, my friend, to celebrate a holiday, the best one possible as long as I live on earth. I believe that is also your duty

The singer expresses that we should focus on being happy and living in the present and stop worrying excessively about everything that could happen.

9. Don't jeopardize your life. You are all you have

Appreciating and valuing ourselves is what this phrase proposes, since we are only going to live one life: our own.

10. I feel so useless down here, with no one to love. Even though I've looked everywhere, I can't find anyone to love me, to feel my affection.

Fragment of one of his songs expresses loneliness and the need to love and be loved.

11. What makes you feel good cannot cause you any harm

In this phrase we can see how Janis Joplin sought to find peace in things that made her feel good temporarily. Specifically she was referring to the consumption of drugs and alcoholwhich ultimately would end up costing her her life.

12. I'm buried alive in the blues

The singer expressed her feelings and emotions with all her intensity.

13. Love your animal friends, don't eat them

Janis Joplin defended animal rights and vegetarianism.as well as vegetarianism.

14. You can wreck your present by worrying about your future.

Overworrying about what might happen in the future pushes us to forget about living in the here and now.

15. Once, in a green time, a flower fell in love with the sun, the passion lasted an hour and then she wilted for her loved one.

This brief fragment of song speaks of a fleeting and passionate love that leaves hurt those who would have really wished for something more.

16. I always wanted to be an artist, whatever it was, just as other girls wanted to be stewardesses. I read. I painted. I thought.

Expressing and communicating emotions and ways of thinking and being oneself, of being free, was what Janis had always wanted to do.

17. Freedom is another word to define nothing to lose

Although this phrase can be interpreted negatively, it tries to reflect that whoever is free has nothing to lose and everything to gain.

18. Being myself, being the person inside me, not playing games, that's what I'm trying to do all the time more than anything else in the world, not to fuck me and not to fuck others.

In short, the white lady of the blues defended the need to be authentic and to live in a coherent way without hurting oneself or others.

19. Here's the problem: that sometimes I have to sleep. But there are so many things going on... Why sleep? I might miss a party

The singer, a symbol of counterculture and rebellion, wanted to be always active.

20. When I sing I feel like I'm in love. It is more than sex. It's the point where two people reach that thing they call love for the first time, multiplied by the whole audience. It's gigantic.

Singing is a great way of emotional expression, establishing an intimate communication with the listener. Moreover, the author of the phrase found comfort in the admiration and appreciation shown by her audience.

21. My business is to have a good time and enjoy myself, and why not, if in the end it all ends?

Again the singer emphasizes the need to live life as we want to live it, striving to be happy.

22. We do not forgive others because they deserve it, but because they need it. They need it, we need it, we all need it.

Forgiveness and being forgiven is something we all need to both give and receive, even though we may or may not deserve it.

23. You have to do it while you can

Joplin invites us to act, to live, to to experiment and to pursue our dreams.

24. I am one of those people who are usually strange.

Janis Joplin was always considered strange, suffering bullying since childhood and suffering from severe self-esteem problems for much of her life.

25. All you really need are feelings

This phrase reflects that in reality, what really matters is how we feel about ourselves, others and life.

26. I am a victim of my own inner self. There was a time when I wanted to know everything. It used to make me very unhappy, that feeling. I didn't know what to do with it. But now I have learned to make that feeling work for me.

It is logical to want to know everything, but we have to be aware that we cannot know everything and that our understanding of the world is limited. our understanding of the world is limited.

27. I want you to count, count your fingers, my unhappy, my unfortunate. My sad little girl. I know you are unhappy, my darling, I know it.

Part of one of her songs, it expresses the sense of loneliness and the need for affection that Janis felt for most of her life.

28. I have looked around and realized something: how much we need to be loved. Ambition is not just a desperate search for position or money. It is love, lots of love.

The need to be loved is something that moves us to a great extent to act (even in ways apparently contrary to it) in order to be loved.

29. If you're getting more shit than you deserve, you know what to do about it. You know, all you need is more music.

The singer pretends with this phrase to show that we should not let ourselves be influenced by the attacks or opinions of others, but that we have to keep on being ourselves..

30. One of these mornings you're going to wake up, wake up singing, you're going to spread your wings boy, and soar into the sky.

This phrase is part of one of his songsThe translation of a fragment of the song Summertime. Although it can be interpreted as the fact of dreaming, it refers to death.