Barbara Bush Quotes

War is not nice.

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 want to still be able to garden while I can bend over.

Never lose sight of the fact that the most important yardstick of your success will be how you treat other people.

Value your friendship. Value your relationships.

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.

My health is very good.

Raising five boys is a handful, trust me.

I think a lot of our problems are because people don't listen to our children. It is not always easy. They're not always so brilliant that you want to spend hours with them. But it is very important to listen to them.

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

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.

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

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

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

I don't like attacking.

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

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.

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

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

My worst expectations never happened.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

Nobody likes a child to die or losing an election.

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.

I'm taking a vow not to advise.

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.

George is the best little dishwasher in Texas.

I think the country has had enough Bushes.

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.

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

I'm not a one-issue person.

I'm a little old-fashioned.

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

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.

I really feel very strongly that the person who runs for office is the courageous one, and the one who everybody has to know.

Believe in something larger than yourself ... get involved in the big ideas of your time.

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.

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

I'm a liberal when it comes to human rights, the poor; so's George Bush ... But Liberal and Conservative don't mean much to me anymore. Does that mean we care about people and are interested and want to help? And if that makes you a Liberal, so be it.

I don't like the blame game, though.

Describing life out of the public eye to David Letterman, December 6th, 1996 It's been different. I started driving again. I started cooking again. My driving's better than my cooking. George has discovered Sam's Club.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.'

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

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

I'm not being outspoken or pro or con abortion.

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.

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

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

Nancy Reagan was a perfectionist, and I am not.

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.

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

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

But why should we hear about body bags, and deaths, and how many, what day it's gonna happen, and how many this or what do you suppose? Or, I mean, it's, it's not relevant. So, why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?

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.

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