Top 103 Quotes & Sayings by Barbara Bush

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American first lady Barbara Bush.

Last updated on April 14, 2025.

Barbara Pierce Bush was First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993 as the wife of President George H. W. Bush, and the founder of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. She previously was Second Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Among her six children are George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States, and Jeb Bush, the 43rd governor of Florida. She and Abigail Adams are the only two women to be the wife of one U.S. president and the mother of another.

American - First lady | June 8, 1925 - April 17, 2018

Source: Wikipedia

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

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

Giving frees us from the familiar territory of our own needs by opening our mind to the unexplained worlds occupied by the needs of others.

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

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.

Barbara Bush

Value your friendship. Value your relationships.

Barbara Bush

If human beings are perceived as potentials rather than problems, as possessing strengths instead of weaknesses, as unlimited rather that dull and unresponsive, then they thrive and grow to their capabilities.

Barbara Bush

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.

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

I don't like attacking.

Barbara Bush

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.

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

I'm taking a vow not to advise.

Barbara Bush

I really built myself up, darn it, to be very strong.

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

I'm not a competitive person, and I think women like me because they don't think I'm competitive, just nice.

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.

Barbara Bush

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.

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

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!

Barbara Bush

Somewhere out 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!

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

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.

Barbara Bush

If you are the wife of a governor or the wife of a vice president, I think you can be prepared for it.

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

Nobody likes a child to die or losing an election.

Barbara Bush

The winner of the hoop race will be the first to realize her dream, not society's dream, her own personal dream.

Barbara Bush

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.

Barbara Bush

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.

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

Nobody likes, you know, the ugly parts of politics.

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

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.

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

I mean Afghanistan is a very rugged, complicated country.

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

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.

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

Nancy Reagan was a perfectionist, and I am not.

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

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.

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

My health is very good.

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

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.

Barbara Bush

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

Barbara Bush

Bias has to be taught. If you hear your parents downgrading women or people of different backgrounds, why, you are going to do that.