First Lady Quotes - Page 3

• I am a woman above everything else.

  Jackie Kennedy

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• First ladies throughout our history have been expected to be adoring wives and perfect mothers.

  Rosalynn Carter

  Mother, Wife, Perfect

  Rosalynn Carter (2016). “First Lady from Plains”, p.314, University of Arkansas Press

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• The one thing I do not want to be called is First Lady. It sounds like a saddle horse. Would you notify the telephone operators and everyone else that I'm to be known simply as Mrs. Kennedy and not as First Lady.

  Jackie Kennedy

  Horse, Sound, Want

  "The Kennedys". Book by Peter Collier and David Horowitz, 1984.

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• I wasn't born a first lady or a senator. I wasn't born a Democrat. I wasn't born a lawyer or an advocate for women's rights and human rights. I wasn't born a wife or a mother.

  Hillary Clinton

  Mother, Rights, Wife

  Hillary Rodham Clinton (2012). “Living History”, p.14, Hachette UK

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• The First Lady role is really difficult. It has no job description... You have to create it for yourself.

  Hillary Clinton

  Jobs, Roles, Firsts

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• I want to feel like the things I did made a difference. That's one of the reasons I spend time greeting people on rope lines, because I'm always thinking, 'Maybe this interaction, particularly if I'm meeting kids, will change someone's life.' That's how I think about the work I do as First Lady. It's a rare spotlight. I want to make sure I don't waste it.

  Michelle Obama

  Kids, Thinking, Differences

  Source: www.people.com

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• We have to design policies that have meaningful impacts on the quality of life of women and families. And that's something that I know I can speak passionately about because whether I'm in the White House as First Lady, as long as I have kids and I'm trying to have a life, I'm gonna be trying to make this balance work...

  Michelle Obama

  Meaningful, Kids, Impact

  "Michelle Obama: The Full Interview". Interview with Katie Couric, www.cbsnews.com. February 15, 2008.

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• Michelle Obama is going to be an amazing First Lady: She's intelligent, capable and motivated. She just embodies everything that an American woman should represent.

  Eva Longoria

  Intelligent, Firsts, Motivated

  "Eva Longoria Parker Shows Her Sexy Side". Interview with Carole Radziwill, www.glamour.com. December 28, 2008.

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• The greatest gift that Michelle and I have received over the last eight years has been the honor of serving as your President and First Lady. Together, we fought our way back from the worst recession in 80 years, and got unemployment to a nine-year low.

  Barack Obama

  Eight, Years, Honor

  Source: www.realclearpolitics.com

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• How lucky we are to have such a treasure of memories.

  Lady Bird Johnson

  Memories, Scrapbooking, Lucky

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• First ladies are doing a lot. But the job remains undefined, frequently misunderstood, and subject to political attacks far nastier in some ways than those any President has ever faced.

  Margaret Truman Daniel

  Jobs, Political, Misunderstood

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• The First Lady is going to be criticized no matter what she does.

  Barbara Bush

  Doe, Matter, Firsts

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• Avoiding the appearance of queenly behavior is politically wise. But it does American culture no favors if a first lady tries so hard to be average that she winds up looking common.

  Robin Givhan

  Wise, Average, Wind

  "Melania stiletto-gate is a showcase for media pettiness" by Stephen L. Miller, www.foxnews.com. August 31, 2017.

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• In France, a first lady has no status, and therefore she isn't supposed to do anything else.

  Valerie Trierweiler

  France, Firsts

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• The arts significantly boost student achievement, reduce discipline problems, and increase the odds students will go on to graduate from college. As First Lady Michelle Obama sums up, both she and the President believe 'strongly that arts education is essential for building innovative thinkers who will be our nation's leaders for tomorrow.'

  Arne Duncan

  Art, Believe, Carpe Diem

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• Explaining the $1000 in cash and two watches he was given by two Japanese journalists after he helped arrange a private interview for them with First Lady Nancy Reagan: I didn't accept it. I received it.

  Richard V. Allen

  Acceptance, Two, Watches

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• The first lady said about her husband, 'I could take up a whole afternoon talking about his failures.' And today she was offered her own show on Fox News.

  Jay Leno

  Husband, Talking, Fox News

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• Presidents often disappoint, but first ladies rarely do.

  Kitty Kelley

  President, Firsts, Disappoint

  "Goosey Lucy and Gay Marriage" by Kitty Kelley, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 1, 2013.

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• I am a big believer that you have to nourish any relationship. I am still very much a part of my friends' lives and they are very much a part of my life. A First Lady who does not have this source of strength and comfort can lose perspective and become isolated.

  Nancy Reagan

  Friendship, Perspective, Comfort

  "Winning with People: Discover the People Principles that Work for You Every Time". Book by John C. Maxwell, 2005.

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• Upon hearing the results of her breast examination, the First Lady said - "I guess it's my turn."

  Nancy Reagan

  Cancer, Examination, Hearing

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• February 1997 - National Prayer Breakfast in Washington attended by the President and the First Lady. "What is taking place in America," she said, "is a war against the child. And if we accept that the mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another."

  Mother Teresa

  Mother, Prayer, Children

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• The First Lady and I both spotted the President standing under the mistletoe and she moved in to grab a kiss from him following a dinner for Combatant Commanders and military leadership at Blair House in Washington, D.C.

  Pete Souza

  Military, Kissing, House

  "20 of the Best White House Photographs of 2014" by Pete Souza, abcnews.go.com. December 29, 2014.

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• Roughly speaking, the President of the United States knows what his job is. Constitution and custom spell it out, for him as well as for us. His wife has no such luck. The First Lady has no rules; rather each new woman must make her own.

  Shana Alexander

  Jobs, America, Wife

  Shana Alexander (1976). “Talking woman”

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• If the first lady is concerned about this Internet cycle, what would she have done during the heyday when there was 12, 13 editions of a paper in one day? What would she have done with that news cycle?

  Matt Drudge

  One Day, Heyday, News

  Q & A at the Washington Press Club, delivered 2 June 1998

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• Until Eleanor Roosevelt, there was only one or two First Ladies in all of American history who made an impact, who people could even have recognized or identified. And it's really only been since Jackie Kennedy that there's been this idea that the family life of the president is such a central thing.

  Gail Collins

  Impact, Ideas, Two

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