Parton: "I always just thought if you see somebody without a smile, give 'em yours!"

Parton: "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."

Parton: "It's when you treat people like freaks that you become one yourself."

Parton: "I always ask God to work through me and let me be a light of some kind and help in this world, so I always pray for that, and I always want to do good."

Parton: "Dream more, learn more, care more, and be more."

Parton: "I've struggled enough in my life to be appreciated and understood. I've had to go against all kinds of people through the years just to be myself. I think everybody should be allowed to be who they are, and to love who they love. I don't think we should be judgmental. Lord, I've got enough problems of my own to pass judgment on somebody else."

Parton: "If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one."

Parton: "We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails."

Parton: "In the country field, we’re brought up in spiritual homes, we’re taught to 'judge not lest you be judged,' and it’s always been a mystery to me how people jump all over things just to criticize, condemn and judge other people when that is so un-Christian – and they claim to be good Christians! We’re supposed to love one another. We’re supposed to accept and love one another. Whether we do or not, that’s a different story. But that’s what we’re supposed to do."

Parton: "You have to work hard, in order to get anything done."

Parton: "A positive attitude and a sense of humor go together like biscuits and gravy."

Parton: "I think my life actually changed at 40. That's when you realize you can't ride the fence anymore. You either have to get on one side or the other. I think some of my best years were between 40 and 50: I got my priorities straight and life is good to me now. It's only other people who say, "God, she's 50 years old!" as if I'm over the hill. I feel like I just started."

Parton: "I bought all those [fitness] videos -- Richard Simmons, Jane Fonda. I love to sit and eat cookies and watch 'em."

Parton: "You'll never do a whole lot unless you're brave enough to try."

Parton: "Don't get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life."