Whenever I was upset by something in the papers, [Jack] always told me to be more tolerant, like a horse flicking away flies in the summer.
Jackie KennedyRead
I'll be a wife and mother first, then First Lady.
Interpretation
Prioritizing family roles over public identity.
Jackie Kennedy's quote emphasizes the significance she places on her roles as a wife and mother, suggesting that personal and familial responsibilities take precedence over her public role as First Lady. It reflects the belief that one's personal life and family duties are fundamental to one's identity, even when in a position of public prominence.
In practice
During a speech about family values, this quote can emphasize the importance of prioritizing family roles.
Whenever I was upset by something in the papers, [Jack] always told me to be more tolerant, like a horse flicking away flies in the summer.
Can anyone understand how it is to have lived in the White House and then, suddenly, to be living alone as the President's widow?
I think my biggest achievement is that, after going through a rather difficult time, I consider myself comparatively sane.
The only routine with me is no routine at all.
Even though people may be well known they still hold in their hearts the emotions of a simple person for the moments that are the most important of those we know on earth - birth, marriage, death.
Even though people may be well known, they hold in their hearts the emotions of a simple person for the moments that are the most important of those we know on earth: birth, marriage and death.
The child supplies the power but the parents have to do the steering.
When a daughter loses a mother, the intervals between grief responses lengthen over time, but her longing never disappears. It always hovers at the edge of her awareness, prepared to surface at any time, in any place, in the least expected ways.
When you start about family, about lineage and ancestry, you are talking about every person on earth.
Parentage is a very important profession, but no test of fitness for it is ever imposed in the interest of the children.
What does it feel like to be a parent? What does it feel like to be a child? And that's what stories do. They bring you there. They offer a dramatic explanation, which is always different from an expository explanation.
Instead of needing lots of children, we need high-quality children.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.