The most recent in my series of aphorisms that have captured my attention, with a special tribute on Dolly Parton Day.
Regular readers know that I’ve long been a fan of the pithy proverb—a quote or bit of advice that contains truth in 20 words or less. My love for the short and to-the-point adage comes from my Grandmother Brown who was known to say things such as: “Some folks are born in the objective mood.”
Grandmother did not have a lot of patience with folks who were always complaining and objecting to what others did. According to my father, both she and my Granddaddy—who I barely knew—always had a positive outlook and attitude toward people. Grandmother, who passed away in January of 1981, had a great impact on my life.
Seven years ago I began showcasing these pithy proverbs in a feature entitled More to Consider. After using the fifth year to highlight some personal favorites, I have returned to my regular habit of collecting new ones and posting them in summaries twice a year. * In honor of the nation’s 250th birthday in 2026 I decided to focus on sayings and memorable phrases from our history. However, I’ve taken a short detour in August and September to remember the remarkable life—and pithy proverbs—of the great Dolly Parton, who passed away on August 25th.
September 25th (or 9/25 . . . 9-2-5) is Dolly Parton Day, so while I’ll get back to the 250th anniversary quotes next month, what follows are some of the short, astute, and sometimes laugh-out-loud sayings of our Goddess of Kindness.
“I’m not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I’m not dumb . . . and I also know that I’m not blonde.”
Dolly Parton
“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.”
Dolly Parton
“Find out who you are and do it on purpose.”
Dolly Parton
“I was the first woman to burn my bra—it took the fire department four days to put it out.”
Dolly Parton
“I make a point to appreciate all the little things in my life. I go out and smell the air after a good, hard rain. I re-read emoticons from my friends. I buy the good toilet paper.”
Dolly Parton
“I’m not going to limit myself just because people won’t accept the fact that I can do something else.”
Dolly Parton
“Smile—it increases your face value.”
Dolly Parton
You can find more legendary quotes from Dolly Parton here.
And because it all began with the music, let’s hear a few more Dolly songs, beginning with the recent tribute at the Emmy awards.
Then this version of Jolene is worth it just for the introduction.
And we’ll end with a few from The Trio—Dolly, Emmylou, and Linda. It was Ronstadt who once said, “we never have any ego problems, we just all do whatever Dolly tells us to do.”
Linda Ronstadt is 80 years old and lives with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare neurodegenerative brain disorder initially misdiagnosed as Parkinson’s disease. The condition severely limits her mobility, requiring her to use a wheelchair and restricting her ability to walk or travel, while permanently robbing her of her legendary singing voice. She recently wrote on Facebook of her sadness at the passing of her friend Dolly Parton.
Three beautiful voices gifted to us from heaven. Ah, those memories.
More to come . . .
DJB
* After the initial More to Consider post pulling together the first group highlighted, I brought out Volume 2: A plethora of pithy proverbs followed with Volume 3: A profusion of pithy proverbs and Volume 4: A plentitude of pithy proverbs. I finally turned to the Super Bowl system (minus the pretentious Roman numerals) with I love the pithy proverb — Volume 5, Volume 6, Volume 7, Volume 8, and Volume 9. For Volume 10, I highlighted some personal favorites from the first nine editions. Then I returned to post new ones in Volume 11 and Volume 12.
Photos of Dolly Parton via Wikimedia and PassItOn.com
