Philanthropist Quotes

“Every seven years, I sit down and make a whole new plan.”

“I'll never harden my heart but I've toughened the muscles around it.”

“I count my blessings far more than I count my money.”

“I've never been pregnant, so I just feel God didn't mean for me to have kids so that everybody else's children could be mine.”

“I write what I write, say what I say, 'cause I feel what I feel, and if I did it different, it would make me a liar! So I'd rather be an honest person than a good liar.”

“Many of my friends are gay, male and female. I don't judge people. I don't care what people do in their bedrooms and people shouldn't care what I do in mine.”

“Time marches on and sooner or later you realize it is marching across your face.”

“I remain totally convinced that if we can do one more simple thing to help kids and adults to learn more, it is to inspire them to read more.”

“I don't know that I'm beautiful or glamorous. I'm a pretty artificial looking person. I sure am flattered when people think I'm beautiful, but I think I'm leaning towards more cartoonish than beautiful. But I'm comfortable with who I am. And since I wasn't born as a natural beauty, I just make the most of what I've got.”

“I haven't stopped working since I was 10.”

“All my momma's people were very musical. My grandpa, who was the Pentecostal minister, he was a great musician. He played the fiddle, he played the piano.”

“'Jolene' has been very popular all of these years, even overseas.”

“If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then, you are an excellent leader.”

“You can't just will your dreams to come true. You have to work hard. You have to give 'em wings, arms, legs...whatever it takes to make your dreams come true.”

“With the first money I ever made I bought my Mommy and Daddy a car, and helped them fix their house up.”

“I was born in an odd spot and was a very sensitive kid. My feelings could get hurt so easily because I always wanted to be loved, I wanted to be touched, I wanted to touch somebody. I wanted everybody to love me, so I think I was louder than I should have been. I was just trying to get attention. I always felt like I was somebody special, maybe it's because I needed to be somebody special.”

“A positive attitude and a sense of humor go together like biscuits and gravy.”

“I’m trying my best to keep up with all this new technology and I surround myself with all these wonderful people that are in the know and kind of help me out with all that.”

“I wanted to be a singer, of course, but there was something about the songwriting, then and now, that is the most important thing. It's how I express myself, how I express how I see things. When I see people struggling with emotions and feelings and don't know how to put it down, I'm able to do that. It's really like a therapy, and it's like a buddy and a friend. It's a way out of a lot of things.”

“We could afford the price of peace. Love is all it costs.”

“I can write a song in about an hour if it's a simple country song.”

“I never could get my hair to do what I wanted it to do, so I started wearing the wigs. It all came from a very serious place. I wanted to look a certain way.”

“Even now, if I am thinking about spending a lot of money on clothing or furniture, I think 'I can't spend so much money on one thing; my poor old Daddy could have raised his family five years on that!'”

“When I started the Imagination Library in my hometown, I never dreamed that one day we would be helping Scottish kids.”

“When I meet someone, I look at their eyes and their smile and seek out the good first - it's easy to find when you're looking for it. You let a person shine with their own light and try to connect it to yours. As soon as I say hello, I go right to that light and I don't care who you are! I know we're all pieces of the same thing - I go for that common light because I know it's in all of us.”