Barbara Bush Quotes

"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."

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

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

"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."

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

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

"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."

"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."

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

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

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

"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 this to my children, they just about throw up."

"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."

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

"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."

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

"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."

"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!"

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

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

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

"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."

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

"Nancy Reagan was a perfectionist, and I am not."

"When you come to a roadblock, take a detour."

"I mean Afghanistan is a very rugged, complicated country."

"I have a pig valve."

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