Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

“I do love you though — and can love you without kissing you every time I see you and I hope you understand that.”

“I've always thought of being in love as being willing to do anything for the other person — starve to buy them bread and not mind living in Siberia with them — and I've always thought that every minute away from them would be hell — so looking at it that [way] I guess I'm not in love with you.”

“A newspaper reported I spend $30,000 a year buying Paris clothes and that women hate me for it. I couldn’t spend that much unless I wore sable underwear.”

“He didn’t even have the satisfaction of being killed for civil rights... it had to be some silly little Communist.”

“Dear God, please take care of your servant John Fitzgerald Kennedy.”

“Now, I think that I should have known that he was magic all along. I did know it — but I should have guessed that it would be too much to ask to grow old with and see our children grow up together. So now, he is a legend when he would have preferred to be a man.”

“One man can make a difference and every man should try.”

“We know you understand that 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. We wish our wedding to be a private moment in the little chapel among the cypresses of Skorpios.”

“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.”

“Minimum information given with maximum politeness.”

“It looks like it’s been furnished by discount stores.”

“The one thing I do not want to be called is First Lady. It sounds like a saddle horse.”

“You are about to have your first experience with a Greek lunch. I will kill you if you pretend to like it.”

“It was a very spasmodic courtship, conducted mainly at long distance with a great clanking of coins in dozens of phone booths.”

“What is sad for women of my generation is that they weren’t supposed to work if they had families. What were they to do when the children were grown — watch raindrops coming down the windowpane?”

“One of the things I like about publishing is that you don't promote the editor — you promote the book and the author.”

“To think that I very nearly didn’t go... What if I’d been here — out riding in Virginia or somewhere — Thank God I went with him.”

“The children have been a wonderful gift to me, and I’m thankful to have once again seen our world through their eyes. They restore my faith in the family’s future.”

“One must not let oneself be overwhelmed by sadness.”

“The trouble with me is that I’m an outsider. And that’s a very hard thing to be in American life.”

“The river of sludge will go on and on. It isn’t about me.”

“Aristotle Onassis rescued me at a moment when my life was engulfed with shadows. He brought me into a world where one could find both happiness and love. We lived through many beautiful experiences together which cannot be forgotten, and for which I will be eternally grateful.”

“I think my biggest achievement is that, after going through a rather difficult time, I consider myself comparatively sane.”

“The deep desire to inspire people, to take an active part in the life of the country …\xa0attracts our best people to political life … We should all do something to right the wrongs that we see and not just complain about them. We owe that to our country.”

“There'd been the biggest motorcade from the airport. Hot. Wild. Like Mexico and Vienna. The sun was so strong in our faces. I couldn't put on sunglasses... Then we saw this tunnel ahead, I thought it would be cool in the tunnel, I thought if you were on the left the sun wouldn't get into your eyes...”

“His head was so beautiful. I tried to hold the top of his head down, maybe I could keep it in... but I knew he was dead.”

“When they carried Jack in, Hill threw his coat over Jack's head, and I held his head to throw the coat over it. It wasn't repulsive to me for one moment — nothing was repulsive to me —”

“These big Texas interns kept saying, "Mrs. Kennedy, you come with us", they wanted to take me away from him... But I said "I'm not leaving"… Dave Powers came running to me at the hospital, crying when he saw me, my legs, my hands were covered with his brains... When Dave saw this he burst out weeping... I said "I'm not going to leave him, I'm not going to leave him"… I was standing outside in this narrow corridor... ten minutes later this big policeman brought me a chair.”

“I said, "I want to be in there when he dies"… so Burkeley forced his way into the operating room and said, "It's her prerogative, it's her prerogative..." and I got in, there were about forty people there. Dr. Perry wanted to get me out. But I said "It's my husband, his blood, his brains are all over me."”

“I held his hand all the time the priest was saying extreme unction.”

“The ring was all blood-stained... so I put the ring on Jack's finger... and then I kissed his hand...”

“Everytime we got off the plane that day, three times they gave me the yellow roses of Texas. But in Dallas they gave me red roses. I thought how funny, red roses — so all the seat was full of blood and red roses.”

“Jack so obviously demanded from a woman-a relationship between a man and a woman where a man would be the leader and a woman would be his wife. With Adlai Stevenson you could have another relationship-where you know, he'd be sort of be sweet and you could talk, but you wouldn't ever,.. I've always thought women who were scared of sex loved Adlai.”