Nancy Reagan Quotes

25 Sourced Quotes

I knew that "warmonger" was never a fair description of Ronnie's position, but I also felt that his calling the Soviet Union an evil empire was not particularly helpful. The world had become too small for the two superpowers not to be on speaking terms.

Nancy Reagan
I must say that acting was good training for the political life that lay ahead of us.

Nancy Reagan
I realized how valuable the art and practice of writing letters are, and how important it is to remind people of what a treasure letters--handwritten letters--can be. In our throwaway era of quick phone calls, faxes, and email, it's all to easy never to find the time to write letters. That's a great pity--for historians and the rest of us.

Nancy Reagan
From the moment I walked into the White House, it was as if I had no privacy at all.

Nancy Reagan
The White House belongs to all Americans. It's supposed to be something we're proud of.

Nancy Reagan
Did I ever give Ronnie advice? You bet I did. I'm the one who knows him best, and I was the only person in the White House who had absolutely no agenda of her own — except helping him.

Nancy Reagan
I was in California and I was talking to, I think, fifth graders, and one little girl raised her hand and said, 'Mrs. Reagan, what do you do if somebody offers you drugs?' And I said, 'Well, you just say no.' And there it was born. I think people thought that we had an advertising agency over who dreamed that up — not true.

Nancy Reagan
Why take chances? It may be nonsense, but does anybody really know? And people have certainly been fascinated by astrology for thousands of years.

Nancy Reagan
If the President has a bully pulpit, then the First Lady has a white glove pulpit…more refined, restricted, ceremonial, but it's a pulpit all the same.

Nancy Reagan
Homes really are no more than the people who live in them.

Nancy Reagan
It's hard to envision Ronnie as being a bad guy. And he's not. But there are times when somebody has to step in and say something. And I've had to do that sometimes — often.

Nancy Reagan
I see the first lady as another means to keep a president from becoming isolated.

Nancy Reagan
I gave Ronnie my best advice — whenever he asked for it, and sometimes when he didn't. But that doesn't mean he always took it. Ronald Reagan has a mind of his own.

Nancy Reagan
It's one of the best programs I've ever seen because it benefits both sides: children, who need love, and grandparents, elderly people, who need to feel wanted.

Nancy Reagan
Our relationship is very special. We were very much in love and still are. Thank God we found each other. When I say my life began with Ronnie, well, it's true. It did. Forty-six years? Can't imagine life without him.

Nancy Reagan
While I loved being first lady, my eight years with that title were the most difficult years of my life.

Nancy Reagan
I have been criticized and ridiculed for turning to astrology, but after a while, I reached the point where I didn't care.

Nancy Reagan
A woman is like a teabag—only in hot water do you realize how strong she is.

Nancy Reagan
I am a big believer that you have to nourish any relationship. I am still very much a part of my friends' lives and they are very much a part of my life. A First Lady who does not have this source of strength and comfort can lose perspective and become isolated.

Nancy Reagan
I don't intend for this to take on a political tone. I'm just here for the drugs.

Nancy Reagan
My mother used to say, "Play the hand that's dealt you," and that is what I have always tried to do. And this, for better or worse, is how it seemed to me.

Nancy Reagan
For eight years I was sleeping with the president, and if that doesn't give you special access, I don't know what does!

Nancy Reagan
I was doing everything I could think of to protect my husband and keep him alive.

Nancy Reagan
In 1981, when Ronnie and I moved to Washington, I never dreamed that our eight years there would be a time of so much emotion. But life in the White House is magnified: The highs were higher than I expected, and the lows were much lower.

Nancy Reagan
I don't think I was as bad, or as extreme in my power or my weakness, as I was depicted — especially during the first year, when people thought I was overly concerned with trivialities, and the final year, when some of the same people were convinced I was running the show.

Nancy Reagan