I married the first man I ever kissed. When I tell this to my children, they just about throw up.
Barbara BushRead
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.
Interpretation
Public discussions should focus on common issues rather than personal opinions.
Barbara Bush emphasizes the importance of keeping personal views out of public forums, such as conventions, suggesting that debating personal beliefs is futile and unproductive. Instead of attempting to change someone's deeply held opinions, which often cannot be swayed, it is more beneficial to focus on shared goals and constructive dialogue.
In practice
In a meeting discussing community issues, this quote may be used to remind participants to focus on solutions rather than personal grievances.
I married the first man I ever kissed. When I tell this to my children, they just about throw up.
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.
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.
You have to love your children unselfishly. That's hard. But it's the only way.
Your success as a family... our success as a nation... depends not on what happens inside the White House, but on what happens inside your house.
To us, family means putting your arms around each other and being there.
When every autumn people said it could not last through the winter, and when every spring there was still no end in sight, only the hope that out of it all some good would accrue to mankind kept men and nations fighting. When at last it was over, the war had many diverse results and one dominant one transcending all others: disillusion.
Of the few innocent pleasures left to men past middle life, the jamming of common sense down the throats of fools is perhaps the keenest.
A compassionate heart still feels anger, greed, jealousy, and other such emotions. But it accepts them for what they are with equanimity, and cultivates the strength of mind to let them arise and pass without identifying with or acting upon them.
There is a big difference between hurt and harm. We all hurt sometimes in facing hard truths, but it makes us grow. It can be the source of huge growth. That is not harmful. Harm is when you damage someone. Facing reality is usually not a damaging experience, even though it can hurt.
Things that would have made fame of a less clever man seemed tricks in his hands. It is a mistake to do things too easily.
When, by meditation, we withdraw restless thoughts from the lake of the mind, we behold our soul, a perfect reflection of Spirit.
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