Barbara Bush's Quotes

If you are the wife of a governor or the wife of a vice president, I think you can be prepared for it.

It was the dumbest thing I had ever seen, but it's a family thing, and I guess it's clean.

Let's judge a man on what he's done.

Life has changed enormously, and I hope - I hope more people read good things.

My health is very good.

My worst expectations never happened.

Nancy Reagan was a perfectionist, and I am not.

Never ask anyone over 70 how they feel. They'll tell you.

One thing I can say about George... he may not be able to keep a job, but he's not boring.

People who worry about their hair all the time, frankly, are boring.

Raising five boys is a handful, trust me.

Raising George Walker was not easy.

Suddenly women's lib had made me feel my life had been wasted.

The personal things should be left out of, in my opinion, out of platforms and conventions.

You can't tell a 6-year-old your sister is going to die.

You don't just luck into things as much as you would like to think you do. You build step by step, whether it is friendships or opportunities.

You just don't luck into things as much as you'd like to think you do. You build step by step, whether it's friendships or opportunities.

You know sit with your arm around a little kid and read. It not only teaches them to read but it keeps the family strong.

You know, for one glorious half hour, I was the mother of the president-elect.

You try to do something every single day that will help an American or maybe someone overseas.

The personal things should be left out of platforms at conventions. You can argue yourself blue in the face, and you're not going to change each other's minds. It's a waste of your time and my time.

I'm a great believer that the most important years are the sort of early years but the preschool years and then into the first and second grades. If you get a good base in the first and second grade and you can read, you can do anything.

Well, look at what people are doing for returned veterans now. The wounded warriors. They're working hard to make the wounded veterans feel that they are loved and welcomed home, unlike Vietnam. It was not a very kind, gentle world then. I think we are kinder and gentler.

Somewhere out in this audience may even be someone who will one day follow my footsteps, and preside over the White House as the president's spouse. I wish him well!

The state dinner is almost a formula, but you try to make it interesting. You try not to overload it with too many political types. You try to get a cross section.

Three publishers came to me at the White House after George lost and said, 'We would like to publish your book.' I said, 'Well, I don't have a book,' and they said well it's a well known fact that you have kept diaries.

At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child, or a parent.

Never lose sight of the fact that the most important yardstick of your success will be how you treat other people - your family, friends, and coworkers, and even strangers you meet along the way.

To us, family means putting your arms around each other and being there.

Cherish your human connections - your relationships with friends and family.

I think togetherness is a very important ingredient to family life.

You may think the president is all-powerful, but he is not. He needs a lot of guidance from the Lord.

It seems to me I spent my life in car pools, but you know, that's how I kept track of what was going on.

If human beings are perceived as potentials rather than problems, as possessing strengths instead of weaknesses, as unlimited rather that dull and unresponsive, then they thrive and grow to their capabilities.

I married the first man I ever kissed. When I tell this to my children, they just about throw up.

I'm worried about parents who aren't parenting.

Value your friendship. Value your relationships.

I do have the most marvelous husband, children, and grandchildren.

I hate the fact that people think 'compromise' is a dirty word.

I don't think that's healthy for the country when anyone thinks their morals are better than anyone else's.

Nobody likes, you know, the ugly parts of politics.

Giving frees us from the familiar territory of our own needs by opening our mind to the unexplained worlds occupied by the needs of others.

I may be the only mother in America who knows exactly what their child is up to all the time.

And who knows? Somewhere out there in this audience may even be someone who will one day follow my footsteps, and preside over the White House as the president's spouse. I wish him well!

Bias has to be taught. If you hear your parents downgrading women or people of different backgrounds, why, you are going to do that.

I'm not a competitive person, and I think women like me because they don't think I'm competitive, just nice.

My son, George, has been a bad, bad boy! Right, George?

Nobody likes a child to die or losing an election.

The winner of the hoop race will be the first to realize her dream, not society's dream, her own personal dream.

You get nothing done if you don't listen to each other.

You have to love your children unselfishly. That's hard. But it's the only way.