Top 80 Loretta Lynn Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “You either have to be first, best, or different.”

— Loretta Lynn

2. “Everyone wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.”

— Loretta Lynn

3. “In the long run, you make your own luck – good, bad, or indifferent.”

— Loretta Lynn

4. “You’ve got to continue to grow, or you’re just like last night’s cornbread – stale and dry.”

— Loretta Lynn

5. “How do you measure your value?”

— Loretta Lynn

6. “Nobody’s perfect. The only one that ever was, was crucified.”

— Loretta Lynn

7. “I love people and I love to sing, and that’s what keeps me going.”

— Loretta Lynn

8. “I wouldn’t have dared ask God for all that He’s given me. I couldn’t have done it on my own. I thank God every day for what I have.”

— Loretta Lynn

9. “I’m proud of being part Cherokee, and I think it’s time all us Indians felt the same way.”

— Loretta Lynn

10. “It’s important that you take care of yourself and blow off steam in the right way. Don’t let some woman walk in and say, “hey, goodbye!” and take your man. Kill her if you can! I’m only kidding.”

— Loretta Lynn

11. “My attitude toward men who mess around is simple: If you find ’em, kill ’em.”

— Loretta Lynn

12. “Do the best you can with yourself and hope for the best.”

— Loretta Lynn

13. “I didn’t know how babies were made until I was pregnant with my fourth child.”

— Loretta Lynn

14. “Because Olivia Newton-John wasn’t from Nashville, they didn’t like her winning our awards. I’ve got no complaints.”

— Loretta Lynn

15. “I want more out of life than I’ve gotten.”

— Loretta Lynn

16. “When all those city folks try to fix up my talking, all they do is mess me up.”

— Loretta Lynn

17. “Doo never actually made moonshine, but he hauled about an ocean of it.”

— Loretta Lynn

18. “You have to be different, great or first.”

— Loretta Lynn

19. “My biggest hero, Gregory Peck, was my birthday present on April 14, 1973. I just sat and stared at him.”

— Loretta Lynn

20. “I get along with all the women singers, but especially Dolly Parton. We talk the same hillbilly language.”

— Loretta Lynn

21. “You get used to sadness, growing up in the mountains, I guess.”

— Loretta Lynn

22. “I believe in education and wish I had a better one.”

— Loretta Lynn

23. “I’m trying to lead a good Christian life, so there ain’t too much spicy to tell about me.”

— Loretta Lynn

24. “I won all the blue ribbons for canning at the state fair.”

— Loretta Lynn

25. “Write about the truth. If you write about the truth, somebody’s living that. Not just somebody, there’s a lot of people.”

— Loretta Lynn

26. “The country is making a big mistake not teaching kids to cook and raise a garden and build fires.”

— Loretta Lynn

27. “When something is bothering me, I write a song that tells my feelings.”

— Loretta Lynn

28. “I’ve been around a long time, and life still has a whole lot of surprises for me.”

— Loretta Lynn

29. “I’d love to travel to the Holy Land.”

— Loretta Lynn

30. “I don’t go to church regular. But I pray for answers to my problems.”

— Loretta Lynn

31. “I refuse to be pushed around anymore.”

— Loretta Lynn

32. “We still lend our old house out to relatives. They keep a guest book for my fans to sign.”

— Loretta Lynn

33. “I ain’t got much education, but I got some sense.”

— Loretta Lynn

34. “Once in a while I get inspired and finish my act with the hillbilly hoedown.”

— Loretta Lynn

35. “You ain’t supposed to get salmon when they’re swimming upstream to spawn. But if you’re hungry, you do.”

— Loretta Lynn

36. “My mother used to paper pictures from movie magazines on the wall of her bedroom. When I was born, she looked at those pictures to decide on a name for me. Claudette Colbert’s picture was up there and so was Loretta Young’s. She decided Loretta was the prettiest name, so I was named after her.”

— Loretta Lynn

37. “Well, friends, nobody owns nothing in this world. Even your breath is just loaned to you.”

— Loretta Lynn

38. “I never knew any Jews until I got into show business. I’ve found them to be real smart and good workers.”

— Loretta Lynn

39. “I know there’s some kind of history to mountain music-like it came from Ireland or England or Scotland and we kept up the tradition.”

— Loretta Lynn

40. “I’m not a big fan of Women’s Liberation, but maybe it will help women stand up for the respect they’re due.”

— Loretta Lynn

41. “Growing up in eastern Kentucky like I did, I’m used to having a few guns around to protect me.”

— Loretta Lynn

42. “If I had a chance to do things over again, I might not start singing. It was my husband Doolittle’s idea. He pushed me out there, the booger. And I’m out there now, so I might as well make the best of it.”

— Loretta Lynn

43. “My life has run from misery to happiness.”

— Loretta Lynn

44. “You’re the reason our kids are ugly.”

— Loretta Lynn

45. “I believe in horoscopes. I was born under the sign of the Ram, which means I’m headstrong, don’t like people telling me what to do.”

— Loretta Lynn

46. “I’ve been married to the same man for all this time. The way we fight sometimes, you can tell.”

— Loretta Lynn

47. “We used to go around tipping outhouses over, or turning over corn shocks on Halloween. Anything to be mean.”

— Loretta Lynn

48. “There’s never going to be another Patsy Cline. Without her, I don’t think I would have lasted.”

— Loretta Lynn

49. “Doolittle looked just like a little toy soldier the first time I ever saw him.”

— Loretta Lynn

50. “I loved being outside. We’d hold lightning bugs in our fingers and pretend they were diamond rings.”

— Loretta Lynn