She was not perfect — are any of us? — but former first lady Barbara Bush dished out some of the wisest and most common-sensical advice and thinking over the course of her rich and packed life as a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, friend, neighbor, and role model to others.
The 92 years of the former first lady were celebrated this weekend with a beautiful Episcopalian funeral Mass in Houston on Saturday. She is being laid to rest this weekend next to her daughter, Robin.
As the nation says goodbye to one of only two woman in our history to have been both the wife and mother of presidents (Abigail Adams was the other), take a look at some of the wisdom shared by Barbara Bush that all of can benefit from, now and for years to come.
These were all spoken by Barbara Bush at various points in her life.
1.) “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.”
2.) “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.”
3.) “The home is the child’s first school, the parent is the child’s first teacher, and reading is the child’s first subject.”
4.) “The darn trouble with cleaning the house is it gets dirty the next day anyway, so skip a week if you have to. The children are the most important thing.”
5.) “You may think the president is all-powerful, but he is not. He needs a lot of guidance from the Lord.”
6.) “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.”
7.) “Show me a wife who doesn’t offer advice, and I’ll show you one who doesn’t care very much.”
8.) “Family and friends and faith are the most important things in your life, and you should be building friendships.”
9.) “Libraries have always seemed like the richest places in the world to me, and I’ve done some of my best learning and thinking thanks to them. Libraries and librarians have definitely changed my life — and the lives of countless other Americans.”
10.) “I think togetherness is a very important ingredient to family life.”
11.) “I married the first man I ever kissed. When I tell this to my children, they just about throw up.”
12.) “To us, family means putting your arms around each other and being there.”
“You have to love your children unselfishly. That is hard. But it is the only way.”
13.) “You have to love your children unselfishly. That is hard. But it is the only way.”
14.) “Believe in something larger than yourself … Get involved in the big ideas of your time.”
15.) “Cherish your human connections — your relationships with friends and family.”
16.) “I know there is a great God, and I’m not worried.”
17.) “George Bush has given me the world. He is the best — thoughtful and loving. I am still old and still in love with the man I married 72 years ago” (spoken last year; they were married for a total of 73 years).
18.) “When all the dust is settled and all the crowds are gone, the things that matter are faith, family and friends … We have been inordinately blessed, and we know that.”
Related: Remembering Barbara Bush, ‘Beautiful Until the Day She Died’
19.) “If human beings are perceived as potentials rather than problems, as possessing strengths rather than weaknesses, as unlimited rather than dull and unresponsive, then they thrive and grow to their capabilities.”
20.) “You don’t just luck into things as much as you’d like to think you do. You build step by step, whether it’s friendships or opportunities.”
21.) “If more people could read, write and comprehend, we could be much closer to solving so many of the other problems our country faces today.”
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