Barbara Bush Quotes

Your success as a family... our success as a nation... depends not on what happens inside the White House, but on what happens inside your house.

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.

Future of his nation does not depend on what happens at the White House, but what happens at your house

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

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

The home is the child's first school, the parent is the child's first teacher, and reading is the child's first subject.

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

The Titanic was built by professionals. The Ark was built by volunteers.

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

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

Nancy Reagan was a perfectionist, and I am not.

The darn trouble with cleaning the house is it gets dirty the next day anyway, so skip a week if you have to. The children are the most important thing.

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 love talking to people, but what I really love is to feel you're doing something instead of sitting home and twiddling your thumbs.

Some people give time, some money, some their skills and connections, some literally give their life's blood . . . but everyone has something to give.

Why be afraid of what people will say? Those who care about you will say, Good luck! and those who care only about themselves will never say anything worth listening to anyway.

Nobody likes a child to die or losing an election.

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

I think the country has had enough Bushes.

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

If more people could read, write, and comprehend, we could be much closer to solving so many of the other problems our country faces today.

Raising five boys is a handful, trust me.

I hate abortions, but just could not make that choice for someone else.

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

Believe in something larger than yourself ... to get involved in some of the big ideas of our time.

Family and friends and faith are the most important things in your life and you should be building friendships.

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

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

Whatever the era...one thing will never change: Fathers and mothers, if you have children, they must come first.

Whether you are talking about education, career, or service, you are talking about life. And life must really have joy. It's supposed to be fun.

I'm not saying to be happy you must be married. Nor am I saying that to be happy you need children. I'm saying that if you opt for children - be you man or woman - you have to take care of them.

Show me a wife who doesn't offer advice and I'll show you one who doesn't care very much.

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

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

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

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.

I mean you can learn how to build a bullet or build a gun or build a bomb on the Internet.

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

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

And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them.

There are a lot of ways to serve, and being president is not the only one, and I would hope that someone else would run.

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 don't like attacking.

I decided I ought to pick a project that would not be controversial, that would not really cost the government a lot of money.

As if we don't have enough volence on television. After her husband accidentally hit two spectators with golf balls during a celebrity golf tournament.

Value your friendship. Value your relationships.

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

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

To this day George Sr. is the soft touch and I'm the enforcer. I'm the one who writes them a letter and says 'Shape up!' He writes, 'You're marvelous.'