top of page
.png){kind=small}
Quotes by First-lady
"I had 3 brothers, 2 died early, and one of them was living a good long time."
"I've learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances."
"The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not our circumstances."
"I live a very dull life here... indeed I think I am more like a state prisoner than anything else."
"I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition."
"I have commenced my auspicious reign and am in quiet possession of the Presidential Mansion... this winter I intend to do something in the way of entertaining that shall be the admiration and talk of all Washington world."
"You may invite the entire 35th Division to your wedding if you want to. I guess it's going to be yours as well as mine. We might as well have the church full while we are at it."
"Now about those ghosts. I'm sure they're here and I'm not half so alarmed at meeting up with any of them as I am at having to meet the live nuts I have to see every day."
"It looks like you're going to have to put up with us for another four years."
"I deplore any action which denies artistic talent an opportunity to express itself because of prejudice against race origin."
"I'm no different from anybody else. If I don't have a card, I can't check out these books."
"I won't lock my doors or bar them either if any of the old coots in the pictures out in the hall want to come out of their frames for a friendly chat."
"I've liked lots of people 'til I went on a picnic jaunt with them."
"A woman's place in public is to sit beside her husband, be silent, and be sure her hat is on straight."
"Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product."
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."
"Friendship with ones self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world."
"I can not believe that war is the best solution. No one won the last war, and no one will win the next war."
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't."
"As for accomplishments, I just did what I had to do as things came along."
"Autobiographies are only useful as the lives you read about and analyze may suggest to you something that you may find useful in your own journey through life."
"My experience has been that work is almost the best way to pull oneself out of the depths."
"Anyone who thinks must think of the next war as they would of suicide."
"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."
6
"Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable."
"Actors are one family over the entire world."
"A woman is like a tea bag - you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water."
"Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry is own weight, this is a frightening prospect."
"It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it."
"Anyone who knows history, particularly the history of Europe, will, I think, recognize that the domination of education or of government by any one particular religious faith is never a happy arrangement for the people."
"I have spent many years of my life in opposition, and I rather like the role."
"Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life."
"It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan."
"It is not more vacation we need - it is more vocation."
"It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness."
"In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility."
"I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity."
"I used to tell my husband that, if he could make me 'understand' something, it would be clear to all the other people in the country."
"In all our contacts it is probably the sense of being really needed and wanted which gives us the greatest satisfaction and creates the most lasting bond."
"I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall."
Bed,
"Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both."
"I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision."
"Perhaps nature is our best assurance of immortality."
"There are practical little things in housekeeping which no man really understands."
"The only advantage of not being too good a housekeeper is that your guests are so pleased to feel how very much better they are."
"The giving of love is an education in itself."
"The Bible illustrated by Dore occupied many of my hours - and I think probably gave me many nightmares."
"Sometimes I wonder if we shall ever grow up in our politics and say definite things which mean something, or whether we shall always go on using generalities to which everyone can subscribe, and which mean very little."
bottom of page