50 Bum Quotes About Lazy Moochers

By Stephanie Kirby

Writer, Entrepreneur and Inspirational quote curator

Published June 26, 2023

Check out these Bum Quotes about living freely without working or having your own money.

The term “Bum” is defined by Dictionary.com as “a person who avoids work and sponges on others” or “to sponge on others for a living; lead an idle or dissolute life.”

If you don’t know if you are a bum or if a friend is a bum, here are some examples:

Someone that doesn’t have a job and gets money from others
Someone that uses other people’s things constantly but never has any of their own stuff
Someone that shows up for food but never helps pay for the food or brings any food with them
Someone that doesn’t have their own home but instead sleeps at other peoples’ homes or outside

Read the bum quotes below to see if you know anyone like this.

Top Bum Quotes

Here are some short quotes about bums.

1. “I slip from workaholic to bum real easy.” — Matthew Broderick

2. “I’m either going to become a writer or a bum.” — Carl Sandburg

3. “I can relax with bums because I am a bum.” — Charles Bukowski

4. “I grew up on the streets, but that doesn’t mean I’m a bum.” — Da Brat

5. “Givers need to set limits because takers rarely do.” — Rachel Wolchin

6. “I dress like a bum all the time. I’m a pretty casual fella.” — Travis Fimmel

7. “We just want to be the happy bums that we are. That’s all.” — Mike Patton

8. “The cool thing about unemployment is every day is Saturday.” — Jarod Kintz

9. “I thought I was going to be a bum the rest of my life.” — Jean-Michel Basquiat

10. “Show me a man with very little money, and I will show you a bum.” — Joe E. Lewis

Van, Ski, and Beach Bum Quotes

Many people like to live the van life, ski-bum, and beach-bum lifestyle.

11. “I became a beach bum.” — George Best

12. “I’m a total beach bum.” — Amyra Dastur

13. “A beach bum is just a blue-collar lounge lizard without a roof over their head.” — Stewart Stafford

14. “I tried to be a ski bum when I stepped away from Twitter, and I wasn’t a very good skier.” — Evan Williams

15. “But then I hit my 20s and only made two albums, and now I live in a ski resort as a ski bum basically.” — Vanessa Mae

16. “One thing to remember about #VanLife: At the end of the day of driving, you end up sleeping in the van, too.” — Caity Weaver

17. “All I ever thought was, ‘I’m going to do this as long as I can, and if I can’t get paid at it, I’ll be a bum doing it.’ And so, here I am.” — Bruce Cockburn

18. “I’m near the beach, and I’m definitely a beach bum. For me, going to training and then going to the beach is kind of an escape for me to get away from everything and relax.” — Brendan Schaub

Living Like a Bum Quotes

There are a lot of ways and reasons people want to live like a bum.

19. “Acting is the expression of a neurotic impulse. It’s a bum’s life.” — Marlon Brando

20. “Doing nothing is very hard to do…you never know when you’re finished” — Leslie Nielsen

21. “I never work just to work. It’s some combination of laziness and self-respect.” — Harold Ramis

22. “I wish sloth would come home and visit me once in a while. I don’t consider laziness a sin at all.” — Kajol

23. “If you’re going to be a bum, be the biggest. If you’re going to blow it, blow it big.” — Broderick Crawford

24. “My name is Matt Foley. I’m 35 years old, I am divorced, and I live in a van down by the river.” — Chris Farley

25. “So forget the map, roll down the windows, and whenever you can, pull over and have a picnic.” — Jim Hensen

26. “I guess, you know, if I didn’t make it with the piano, I guess I would’ve been the biggest bum.” — Thelonious Monk

27. “I’m back with my own kind of people here now, the bums and drinkers and no goods, and it is a fine thing.” — John Steinbeck

28. “I didn’t mean to be a songwriter; I just was writing for fun; you have all day to do it. I was homeless, so that’s all I had to do.” — Jewel

Sayings and Bum Quotes

Enjoy these thoughts and sayings about living life like a bum.

29. “Winning is like shaving—you do it every day, or you wind up looking like a bum.” — Jack Kemp

30. “Baseball freely amidst that the sport like civilized society is crawling with bums.” — Dan Gutman

31. “I did a gig in the U.S. once for the homeless. I said, ‘It’s nice to see so many bums on seats.’” — Jimmy Carr

32. “Why should I pay the bums all that good folding money and then go out and do all the work myself?” — Tony Galento

33. “A gold standard is to the moochers and looters in government what sunlight and garlic are to vampires.” — Herman Cain

34. “Laziness works. And the simple way to incorporate its health benefits into your life is simply to take a nap.” — Tom Hodgkinson

35. “When you’re in the States, and you’re a writer, and you’ve got money, and you walk into a bank, you’re a bum with money.” — Norman Spinrad

36. “I was going to be a teacher and improve the world. Teach people with hooks for hands to fingerpaint, and teach bums to draw happy faces on beads.” — Lloyd Kaufman

37. “Every day who loves his daughter is not going to want her to go with the penniless slacker loser poet bum when she could go out with someone who’s successful.” — John Leguizamo

38. “All of the biggest technological inventions created by man—the airplane, the automobile, the computer—says little about his intelligence, but speaks volumes about his laziness.” — Mark Kennedy

Bum Quotes and Perspectives

These quotes show different perspectives on living life as a bum.

39. “Bums are the well-to-do of this day. They didn’t have as far to fall.” — Jackson Pollock

40. “That’s what Rocky is all about pride, reputation, and not being another bum in the neighborhood.” — Sylvester Stallone

41. “As a cop, I dealt with every kind of bum and criminal. They all have more integrity than some Hollywood people.” — Joseph Wambaugh

42. “Just one more word. If I ever run into any of you bums on the street corner, just let’s pretend we never met before.” — William Holden

43. “I love traveling, but I love the bum I married and the bums I gave birth to more. And the dogs. I love them, too.” — Mary Janice Davidson

44. “Many in California are punks, beach bums just lying around in the sun and maybe collecting unemployment. “— Arnold Schwarzenegger

45. “All my friends are bums. We all gather round our camp-fire (in a can) and sing songs of togetherness as we cuddle, to preserve our warmth…” — Will Advise

A few more Bum Quotes

Here are some additional quotes about the lifestyle.

46. “Everyone had something to offer, and nobody appeared to have much money. Even the successful seemed to have just enough to live like extravagant bums.” — Patti Smith

47. “Modern storytellers are the descendants of an immense and ancient community of holy people, troubadours, bards, griots, cantadoras, cantors, traveling poets, bums, hags, and crazy people.” — Clarissa Pinkola Estes

48. “Liberals believe an inexhaustible fun exists that can be tapped endlessly to pay for government social programs. Tax the rich and give it to a long line of moochers, pork barrel hustlers, and ne’er-do-wells.” — James Cook

49. “Bums panhandled instead of getting a job. People dropping their trash on the sidewalk or tossed it from their car windows. All these actions said the same thing: my shit is more important than yours. The world was a self-centered place, and he hated it for it.” — Simon Wood

50. “Everything we do is escapism because we’ll all be dead, and everything we do is completely meaningless. Why brush your teeth? Why not be in the park with the bums passing a short dog? Why pay taxes, why get educated? Of course, literature is an escape. You have to fill the hours.” — T.C. Boyle