Banjo Paterson on Australia

“All men are born free and equal; and each man is entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of horse racing.”

“I saw bank booms... land booms, silver booms, Northern Territory booms, and they all had one thing in common—they always burst.”

“Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong   Under the shade of a coolibah tree, And he sang as he watched and waited till his "Billy" boiled,   "You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me."”

“The hard, resentful look on the faces of all bushmen comes from a long course of dealing with merino sheep. The merino dominates the bush, and gives to Australian literature its melancholy tinge, its despairing pathos. The poems about dying boundary-riders, and lonely graves under mournful she-oaks, are the direct outcome of the poet’s too close association with that soul-destroying animal. A man who could write anything cheerful after a day in the drafting-yards would be a freak of nature.”