First Lady

Explore 17 quotes by First Ladys

You could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the "basket of deplorables."

Hillary Rodham Clinton

More information about this quote

Topic

American politics

Speaker

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Source

Remarks at Fundraiser, September 9, 2016

Statement Type

Political gaffe

Language

English

Time

2016 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Clinton, Hillary. Remarks at a fundraiser. Campaign fundraising event. 9 Sept. 2016, New York, NY, USA.

These are times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed.... Great necessities call out great virtues.

Abigail Adams

Letter to John Adams, 1780

Read this letter at the National Archives website

More information about this quote

Topic

Interesting times Benefits of adversity

Author

Abigail Adams

Source

Letter to John Adams, 1780 Letters of Abigail Adams

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1780 1780s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Adams, Abigail. Letter to John Quincy Adams. 12 Jan. 1780.

Current Citation

Adams, Abigail. Quoted in John Adams, written by David McCullough. Simon and Schuster, 2001.

The great story here... Is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president.

Hillary Rodham Clinton

More information about this quote

Topic

Monica Lewinsky scandal American politics

Speaker

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Source

Today

Medium

Interview TV program

Language

English

Time

1998 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Clinton, Hillary. Interview on Today. NBC Television, 27 Jan. 1998.

You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

Eleanor Roosevelt

More information about this quote

Topic

Facing one's fears Taking action Courage

Author

Eleanor Roosevelt

Source

You Learn by Living

Statement Type

Advice

Language

English

Time

1960 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Roosevelt, Eleanor. You Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life. Harper, 1960.

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

Eleanor Roosevelt

More information about this quote

Topic

Criticism from others

Author

Eleanor Roosevelt

Source

This Is My Story

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1937 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Roosevelt, Eleanor. This Is My Story. Harper & Brothers, 1937.

We lack, at some core level, meaning in our individual lives and meaning collectively-that sense that our lives are part of some greater effort, that we are connected to one another... We need a new politics of meaning. We need a new ethos of individual responsibility and caring. We need a new definition of civil society which answers the unanswerable questions posed by both the market forces and the governmental ones, as to how we can have a society that fills us up again and makes us feel that we are part of something bigger than ourselves.

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Speech at the University of Texas, April 7, 1993

More information about this quote

Topic

American politics Meaninglessness

Speaker

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Source

Speech at the University of Texas, April 7, 1993

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1993 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Clinton, Hillary. Speech at the University of Texas at Austin. Liz Carpenter Lecture Series. 7 Apr. 1993, Austin, TX, USA.

In the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could.

Abigail Adams

Read this letter at the Massachusetts Historical Society website

More information about this quote

Topic

Feminism Oppression of women Men and women Tyranny Exploration

Author

Abigail Adams

Source

Letters of Abigail Adams

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1776 1770s 18th century

Era

American Revolutionary Period

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Adams, Abigail. Letter to John Adams. 31 Mar. 1776.

Current Citation

Adams, Abigail. My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams, edited by Margaret A. Hogan and C. James Taylor. Belknap Press, 2010.

Patriotism in the female Sex is the most disinterested of all virtues. Excluded from honours and from offices, we cannot attach ourselves to the State or Goverment from having held a place of Eminence...Yet all History and every age exhibit Instances of patriotick virtue in the female Sex; which considering our situation equals the most Heroick of yours.

Abigail Adams

Letter to John Adams, June 17, 1782

Read this letter at masshist.org

More information about this quote

Topic

Patriotism Oppression of women

Author

Abigail Adams

Source

Letter to John Adams, June 17, 1782 Letters of Abigail Adams

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1782 1780s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Adams, Abigail. Letter to John Adams. 17 June 1782.

Current Citation

Adams, Abigail. Quoted in Abigail and John Adams: The Americanization of Sensibility, written by G. J. Barker-Benfield. University of Chicago Press, 2010, ch. 8.

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!

Barbara Bush

More information about this quote

Topic

American Presidency

Speaker

Barbara Bush

Medium

Speech

Genre

Commencement address

Statement Type

Political joke Joke

Language

English

Time

1990 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Bush, Barbara. Remarks at Wellesley College commencement. Commencement ceremony. 1 June 1990. Wellesley, MA, USA.

All of us in this country give lip service to the ideals set forth in the Bill of Rights and emphasized by every additional amendment, and yet when war is stirring in the world, many of us are ready to curtail our civil liberties. We do not stop to think that curtailing these liberties may in the end bring us a greater danger than the danger we are trying to avert.

Eleanor Roosevelt

More information about this quote

Topic

Civil liberties

Author

Eleanor Roosevelt

Language

English

Time

1940 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Roosevelt, Eleanor. "Intolerance." Cosmopolitan, Feb. 1940.

I'm not sitting here because I'm some little woman standing by my man, like Tammy Wynette. I am sitting here because I love him and I respect him, and I honor what he's been through and what we've been through together.

Hillary Rodham Clinton

More information about this quote

Topic

American politics Infidelity

Speaker

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Source

60 Minutes

Medium

Interview TV program

Language

English

Time

1992 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Clinton, Hillary. Interview on 60 Minutes. CBS-TV, 26 Jan. 1992.

I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas. But what I decided was to fulfil my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life.

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Read this quote at time.com

More information about this quote

Topic

American politics Women's empowerment

Speaker

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Language

English

Time

1992 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Clinton, Hillary. Comment on questions raised by Edmund G. Brown Jr. c. 1992, New York City, NY, USA.

Action brings with it its own courage, its own energy, a growth of self-confidence that can be acquired in no other way.

Eleanor Roosevelt

More information about this quote

Topic

Taking action Fake it 'til you make it Courage Confidence Personal growth

Author

Eleanor Roosevelt

Source

Tomorrow is Now

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1963 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Roosevelt, Eleanor. Tomorrow is Now. Harper & Row, 1963.

There'll be great Presidents again-and the Johnsons are wonderful, they've been wonderful to me-but there'll never be another Camelot again.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

More information about this quote

Topic

American Presidency American politics

Author

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Source

Life Magazine

Medium

Magazine

Statement Type

Prophecies and predictions

Language

English

Time

1963 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Kennedy-Onassis, Jacqueline. Life Magazine. 6 Dec. 1963.

Whilst you are proclaiming peace and good will to men, emancipating all nations, you insist upon retaining an absolute power over wives. But you must remember that arbitrary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken-and notwithstanding all your wise laws and maxims we have it in our power not only to be free ourselves but to subdue our masters, and without violence throw both your natural and legal authority at our feet.

Abigail Adams

Letter to John Adams, 1776

Read this letter at the National Archives website

More information about this quote

Topic

Oppression of women

Author

Abigail Adams

Source

Letter to John Adams, 1776 Letters of Abigail Adams

Medium

Letter

Statement Type

Threat Prophecies and predictions

Language

English

Time

1776 1770s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Adams, Abigail. Letter to John Adams. 7 May 1776.

Current Citation

Adams, Abigail. My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams, edited by Margaret A. Hogan and C. James Taylor. Belknap Press, 2010.

Don't ever make decisions based on fear. Make decisions based on hope and possibility. Make decisions based on what should happen, not what shouldn't.

Michelle Obama

More information about this quote

Topic

Decisions and choices Hope vs. fear Hope Fear

Author

Michelle Obama

Source

Fear Is a Useless Emotion

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

2008 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Obama, Michelle. Quoted in "Michelle Obama in Phoenix: 'Fear Is a Useless Emotion'" by Dawn Teo. Huffpost.com, 5 June 2008, www.huffpost.com/entry/michelle-obama-in-phoenix_b_103924. Originally stated during campaign fund raiser. 3 June 2008, Phoenix, Arizona, USA.

It is really mortifying, sir, when a woman possessed of a common share of understanding considers the difference of education between the male and female sex, even in those families where education is attended to... Nay why should your sex wish for such a disparity in those whom they one day intend for companions and associates. Pardon me, sir, if I cannot help sometimes suspecting that this neglect arises in some measure from an ungenerous jealousy of rivals near the throne.

Abigail Adams

More information about this quote

Topic

Gender relations Oppression of women Men and women

Author

Abigail Adams

Source

Letters of Abigail Adams

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1778 1770s 18th century

Era

American Revolutionary Period

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Adams, Abigail. Letter to John Thaxter. 15 Feb. 1778.

Current Citation

Adams, Abigail. "Letter to John Thaxter, 1778." The Adams Papers: The Adams Family Correspondence Volumes 1 & 2, edited by L. H. Butterfield. Anthenum, 1965.