Wit and Wisdom of America's First Ladies: A Book of Quotations
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Humorous and heartfelt reflections include Abigail Adams's thoughts on partnership ("No man ever prospered in the world without the consent and cooperation of his wife."); Dolley Madison's attitude toward gossip ("It is one of my sources of happiness never to desire a knowledge of other people's business."); and Eleanor Roosevelt's comment on accountability ("It is often the people who refuse to assume any responsibility who are apt to be the sharpest critics of those who do.").
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Wit and Wisdom of America's First Ladies - Dover Publications
Wit and Wisdom of AMERICA’S FIRST LADIES
Wit and Wisdom of AMERICA’S FIRST LADIES
A Book of Quotations
Edited by
JOSLYN PINE
DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.
Mineola, New York
DOVER THRIFT EDITIONS
GENERAL EDITOR: MARY CAROLYN WALDREP
EDITOR OF THIS VOLUME: JIM MILLER
Dedication
For Sharon, the Golden Rule personified
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 by Dover Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Bibliographical Note
Wit and Wisdom of America’s First Ladies: A Book of Quotations is a new work, first published by Dover Publications, Inc. in 2014.
International Standard Book Number
eISBN-13: 978-0-486-79864-6
Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation
49887501 2014
www.doverpublications.com
NOTE
IT MIGHT COME as a surprise to some—especially to those who associate the words First Lady
with power, glory, and glamour—that the following excerpt from a 1901 article in Munsey’s Magazine* is nearly as true today as it was then. Entitled Our Four Year Queens,
it starts by defining the First Lady’s role as an exacting position whose duties few have fulfilled with zest and enjoyment,
and continues:
Our national boast that any American girl may be a four years’ queen
has been the source of endless day dreams under blue checked sunbonnets, and even behind dotted veils; but after a sober study of life in the White House, the glory of being First Lady in the land becomes a little dimmed. It even begins to look like very hard work; and of those who have occupied the republican throne during the past hundred and twelve years, many have approached it with reluctance and left it with relief. Some have shrunk under their own inadequacy to its duties; some have resented the sacrifice of quiet home life; many have been broken in health, too worn with a life of struggle to find pleasure in their late triumphs. A few, like Dolly [sic] Madison, have been thoroughly equal to the position, and have enjoyed its opportunities heart and soul.
Looking closely at the history of the role, a complex and often fascinating picture emerges that transcends the notion of First Lady as presidential wife—and not only in the political sense. Since several men had lost their wives before they were elected president, close female relatives or friends were often called upon to fill in as White House hostesses. For example, Thomas Jefferson had been a widower for nineteen years when he became president in 1801; and it is generally believed that his two daughters assumed those responsibilities for their father. However, his friend Dolley Madison is also credited with acting as Jefferson’s First Lady, before she attained the position officially when her husband James Madison succeeded Jefferson as president.
The book at hand includes only presidential wives who served in the role, and probably more than anything attempts to present what it feels
like to be the First Lady. And to a great extent, it inevitably reflects the role’s evolution as it was changed and shaped by the times and the individuals who filled it. In the years since 1900, there were probably two factors that contributed more than any others to a transformation of the First Lady from relatively passive to very active, and even politically powerful: the explosive growth of the media; and Eleanor Roosevelt: Greatness in a president tends to be associated with great national crises; the same is true of Eleanor Roosevelt and her ability to rise up with the American people and face the Great Depression.
† After Mrs. Roosevelt, the job of First Lady would never be the same.
One of the greatest challenges of compiling a book of quotes is finding worthy material that can stand on its own without an immediate context. That fact, to a great extent, was a guiding principle in the selection of both the individuals and the quotations included—and excluded. So the process by necessity had to be a purely subjective one. Furthermore, as already indicated, this collection includes quotes only from First Ladies who were presidential wives.
Please note that the names of the First Ladies as they appear herein reflect the content and arrangement found on the National First Ladies’ Library website (www.firstladies.org/), since there is a remarkable abundance of variations.
Because a wide variety of sources were used to assemble this compilation, spelling and punctuation have, for the most part, been modernized and standardized for the sake of clarity and consistency. And since four different references might each contain a different version of the same quote, every effort has been made to present the version closest to the spirit and substance of the original.
Joslyn Pine
May 2014
* Marian West, Our Four Year Queens,
Munsey’s Magazine, October, 1901, 907.
† John B. Roberts II, Rating the First Ladies: The Women Who Influenced the Presidency (New York: Citadel Press Books, 2003), xi.
CONTENTS
Martha Washington
Abigail Adams
Dolley Madison
Louisa Adams
Sarah Polk
Mary Todd Lincoln
Julia Grant
Lucretia Garfield
Caroline Harrison
Edith Roosevelt
Helen Taft
Ellen Wilson
Edith Wilson
Florence Harding
Grace Coolidge
Lou Hoover
Eleanor Roosevelt
Bess Truman
Mamie Eisenhower
Jacqueline Kennedy
Lady Bird Johnson
Betty Ford
Rosalynn Carter
Nancy Reagan
Barbara Bush
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Laura Bush
Michelle Obama
Index
Martha Dandridge Custis Washington
Born June 2, 1731—Died May 22, 1802
1st First Lady, 1789–1797
There were no precedents for the role Martha Washington had thrust