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Quotes by First-lady
"I must say acting was good training for the political life which lay ahead for us."
7
"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."
7
"To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart."
7
"Perhaps nature is our best assurance of immortality."
7
"I live a very dull life here... indeed I think I am more like a state prisoner than anything else."
7
"I believe that people would be alive today if there were a death penalty."
7
"I don't think I'm allowed to talk about that. It is definitely not me. The role has been cast."
Talk,
7
"A little simplification would be the first step toward rational living, I think."
7
"Any first lady can do whatever they want to do. In this country, people expect them to work on whatever they want or to have a career of their own."
7
"Every child in American should have access to a well-stocked school library."
7
"I also want to encourage anybody who was affected by Hurricane Corina to make sure their children are in school."
7
"Art is the window to man's soul. Without it, he would never be able to see beyond his immediate world; nor could the world see the man within."
6
"No one won the last war, and no one will win the next war."
6
"When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?"
6
"My evil genius Procrastination has whispered me to tarry 'til a more convenient season."
6
"If you keep making jokes like that, somebody is going to shoot you, father."
6
"The first lady is, and always has been, an unpaid public servant elected by one person, her husband."
5
"Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product."
5
"Others live on in a careless and lukewarm state - not appearing to fill Longfellow's measure: 'Into each life, some rain must fall.'"
5
"You wouldn't worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do."
5
"I wish that my husband's friends had left him where he is, happy and contented in retirement."
4
"I could not at any age be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived. Curiosity must be kept alive. One must never for whatever reason turn his back on life."
4
"Do one thing every day that scares you."
4
"Have convictions. Be friendly. Stick to your beliefs as they stick to theirs. Work as hard as they do."
3
"The trouble is that not enough people have come together with the firm determination to live the things which they say they believe."
3
"When life is too easy for us, we must beware or we may not be ready to meet the blows which sooner or later come to everyone, rich or poor."
3
"If you want a world ruled by law and not by force you must build up, from the very grassroots, a respect for law."
3
"It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself."
3
"For 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."
3
"You not only have a right to be an individual. You have a responsibility."
3
"Those who are lifting the world upward and onward are those who encourage more than criticize."
3
"You must do the things you think you cannot do."
3
"What one has to do usually can be done."
3
"Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life."
3
"I am convinced that every effort must be made in childhood to teach the young to use their own minds. For one thing is sure: If they don't make up their minds, someone will do it for them."
3
"The reason that fiction is more interesting than any other form of literature, to those who really like to study people, is that in fiction the author can really tell the truth without humiliating himself."
2
"More people are ruined by victory I imagine than by defeat."
2
"When you cease to make a contribution you begin to die."
2
"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."
2
"It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know. We all know people who are so much afraid of pain that they shut themselves up like clams in a shell and, giving out nothing, receive nothing and therefore shrink until life is a mere living death."
2
"Do not be afraid of mistakes providing you do not make the same one twice."
2
"When you get to the end of your rope tie a knot in it and hang on."
2
"You gain strength courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.... You must do the thing you think you cannot do."
2
"Do the things that interest you and do them with all your heart. Don't be concerned about whether people are watching you or criticizing you. The chances are that they aren't paying any attention to you. It's your attention to yourself that is so stultifying. But you have to disregard yourself as completely as possible. If you fail the first time then you'll just have to try harder the second time. After all, there's no real reason why you should fail. Just stop thinking about yourself."
2
"Criticism ... makes very little dent upon me unless I think there is some real justification and something should be done."
2
"Women are like teabags. We don't know our true strength until we are in hot water!"
2
"No leader can be too far ahead of his followers."
2
"This I know. This I believe with all my heart. If we want a free and peaceful world if we want to make the deserts bloom and man grow to greater dignity as a human being - we can do it!"
2
"No one from the beginning of time has had security."
2
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