# Barbara Bush

Barbara Pierce Bush (8 June 1925 - 17 April 2018) was the wife of the 41st U.S. president, George H. W. Bush, and mother of the 43rd U.S. president, George W. Bush.

## Quotes

* I can’t say it, but it rhymes with rich.
** On her opinion of Democratic vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro; it has sometimes been reported that she had said "It rhymes with "witch". The New York Times (15 October 1984)
* 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.
** On the abortion debate, in which her stance was the opposite of her husband's, as quoted in Time magazine (24 August 1992)
* Avoid this crowd like the plague. And if they quote you, make damn sure they heard you.
** Advice about news reporters, to incoming first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton, on a tour of the White House, as quoted in Newsweek magazine (30 November 1992)
* But why should we hear about body bags and deaths, and how many, what day it's gonna happen, and how many this or that or what do you suppose? Or, I mean, it's not relevant. So, why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that, and watch him (her husband, former president George H. W. Bush) suffer?
** Addressing the question of how much television news she'd recently been watching, in light of the enormous media attention given to likely outcomes in a U.S. war with Iraq. The interview took place two days prior to the start of the Iraq War, Good Morning America (18 March 2003)
* What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they [the Hurricane Katrina refugees in the Houston Astrodome] all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them.
** Marketplace (6 March 2005)

### Barbara Bush: A Memoir (1994)

* For heaven's sake enjoy life. Don't cry over things that were or things that aren't. Enjoy what you have now to the fullest. In all honesty you really only have two choices; you can like what you do OR you can dislike it. I choose to like it and what fun I have had. The other choice is no fun and people do not want to be around a whiner. We can always find people who are worse off and we don't have to look far! Help them and forget self! I would certainly say, above all, seek God. He will come to you if you look. There is absolutely NO down side.
** p. 531

## Quotes about Barbara Bush

* Dear First Lady: I recently read your criticism of my family. I was deeply hurt. Heaven knows we're far from perfect and, if truth be known, maybe just a wee bit short of normal; but as Dr. Seuss says, "a person is a person". I try to teach my children Bart, Lisa, and even little Maggie, always to give somebody the benefit of the doubt and not talk badly about them, even if they're rich. It's hard to get them to understand this advice when the very First Lady in the country calls us not only dumb, but "the dumbest thing" she ever saw. Ma'am, if we're the dumbest thing you ever saw, Washington must be a good deal different than what they teach me at the current events group at the church. I always believed in my heart that we had a great deal in common. Each of us living our lives to serve an exceptional man. I hope there is some way out of this controversy. I thought, perhaps, it would be a good start to just speak my mind.
** Marge Simpson, letter (September 28, 1990)

## External links

* Official White House biography
* George H. W. Bush and Barbara Bush Oral History, Houston Oral History Project (July 2009)
* Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy
* Barbara Bush at C-SPAN's First Ladies: Influence & Image