Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Quotes (50 quotes)

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: 50 quotes 3 likes

Famous Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Quotes

“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.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

The "Camelot" interview (29 November 1963)

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

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

On her romance with John F. Kennedy quoted inThe Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys (1987) by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

“The deep desire to inspire people, to take an active part in the life of the country … attracts 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.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

As quoted in The Eloquent Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis : A Portrait in Her Own Words (2004) by Bill Adler, p. 174

“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.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Letter breaking up with a boyfriend in 1947, as quoted in Jacqueline Kennedy's Old Love Letters Will School You in the Art of Breaking Up" by Laura Beck, in Cosmopolitan (2 September 2015)]

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

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Written on a card for an exhibit which travelled around the US when the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston was first opening (1979), quoted in Respectfully Quoted : A Dictionary of Quotations (1989) edited by Suzy Platt

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

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Response to Stephen Spender, on being asked what she considered her proudest accomplishment, as quoted in The Eloquent Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis : A Portrait in Her Own Words (2004) by Bill Adler, p. 5, and p. 232

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Quotes about love

“I want to take this opportunity to express my appreciation for the hundreds of thousands of messages, nearly eight hundred thousand in all, which my children and I have received over the past few weeks. The knowledge of the affection in which my husband was held by all of you has sustained me and the warmth of these tributes is something I shall never forget. Whenever I can bear to, I read them. All his bright light’s gone from the world. All of you who have written to me know how much we all loved him and that he returned that love in full measure.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Televised appearance (14 January 1964) https://preview-archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/flatview?cuecard=68446

“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.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Liking Ike: Eisenhower, Advertising and the Rise of Celebrity Politics (2016) David Haven Blake
The "Camelot" interview (29 November 1963)

“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.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Statement at the funeral of Aristotle Onassis, as quoted in Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis : A Life (2000) by Donald Spoto.
Context: 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'd get out of bed at night and play it for him, when it was so cold getting out of bed… on a Victrola ten years old — and the song he loved most came at the very end of this record, the last side of Camelot, sad Camelot… "Don't let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot."…There'll never be another Camelot again…”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

The "Camelot" interview (29 November 1963)
Context: But there's this one thing I wanted to say... I'm so ashamed of myself... When Jack quoted something, it was usually classical... no, don't protect me now... I kept saying to Bobby, I've got to talk to somebody, I've got to see somebody, I want to say this one thing, it's been almost an obsession with me, all I keep thinking of is this line from a musical comedy, it's been an obsession with me... At night before we'd go to sleep... we had an old Victrola. Jack liked to play some records. His back hurt, the floor was so cold. I'd get out of bed at night and play it for him, when it was so cold getting out of bed... on a Victrola ten years old — and the song he loved most came at the very end of this record, the last side of Camelot, sad Camelot... "Don't let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot."... There'll never be another Camelot again...

“We have known so much & shared & lost so much together—Even if it isn’t the way you wish now—I hope that bond of love and pain will never be cut.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

In a letter to David Ormsby-Gore, 5th Baron Harlech, as quoted in the article "The One That Got Away: A Trove of Jacqueline Kennedy’s Love Letters Has Been Found" (9 February 2017) http://www.vogue.com/article/jacqueline-kennedy-onassis-letters-david-ormbsy-gore

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

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Letter to a boyfriend of 1947, quoted in Jacqueline Kennedy's Old Love Letters Will School You in the Art of Breaking Up" by Laura Beck, in Cosmopolitan (2 September 2015) http://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/news/a45821/jacqueline-kennedy-dear-john-letter/

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Quotes about children

“If you bungle raising your children I don't think whatever else you do well matters very much.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Interview with NBC News Correspondent Sander Vanocur (1 October 1960) https://web.archive.org/web/20140127091759/http://www.jfklink.com/speeches/joint/joint011060_nbctv03.html

“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.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Quoted from article written by Jacqueline Kennedy for Look Magazine (17 November 1964) JFK memorial issue.

“If they're killing Kennedys, then my children are targets … I want to get out of this country.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

After assassination of Robert F. Kennedy (1968) http://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/19/us/john-f-kennedy-jr-heir-to-a-formidable-dynasty.html?pagewanted=all

“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?”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Quoted in The Last Word (1992) edited by Carolyn Warner

“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.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

The Unknown Wisdom of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1994) edited by Bill Adler

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: Trending quotes

“I saw myself in the mirror; my whole face spattered with blood and hair… I wiped it off with Kleenex… History! … I thought, no one really wants me there. Then one second later I thought, why did I wash the blood off? I should have left it there, let them see what they've done…”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

A variant reading of White's notes exists: Then later I said to Bobby — what's the line between histrionics and drama. I should have kept the blood on. but in White's own published memoir In Search of History: A Personal Adventure (1978) this is rendered "what's the line between history and drama?"
The "Camelot" interview (29 November 1963)
Context: History!... Everybody kept saying to me to put a cold towel around my head and wipe the blood off... later, I saw myself in the mirror; my whole face spattered with blood and hair... I wiped it off with Kleenex... History! … I thought, no one really wants me there. Then one second later I thought, why did I wash the blood off? I should have left it there, let them see what they've done... If I'd just had the blood and caked hair when they took the picture … Then later I said to Bobby — what's the line between history and drama? I should have kept the blood on.

History

“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.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Press Statement issued the day before her marriage to Aristotle Onassis, NY Times (20 October 1968)
Context: 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.

Death , Marriage , People , Birth

“No one in the world could have ever been like you were yesterday -- except maybe Bobby -- We are going home now -- Your phone was busy.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

World , Home , Business

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Quotes

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

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Advice to her secretary; quoted inThe Kennedys (1984) by Peter Collier and David Horowitz

Horse

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

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Welcoming decorator Billy Baldwin to the island of Skorpios; quoted in Ari (1986) by Peter Evans

“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."”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

The "Camelot" interview (29 November 1963)

People , Way

“You and he were adversaries, but you were allied in a determination that the world should not be blown up. The danger which troubled my husband was that war might be started not so much by the big men as by the little ones. While big men know the need for self-control and restraint, little men are sometimes moved more by fear and pride.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Letter to Nikita Khrushchev after JFK assassination, as quoted in One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War (2009) by Michael Dobbs.

Men , War , World , Fear

“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.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

The "Camelot" interview (29 November 1963)

Time

“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”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

The "Camelot" interview (29 November 1963)

“You were so kind to us yesterday. Never have I seen such magnanimity and such tenderness.
Can you imagine the gift you gave me? To return to the White House privately with my little ones while they are still young enough to rediscover their childhood — with you both as guides — and with your daughters, such extraordinary young women.
What a tribute to have brought them up like that in the limelight. I pray I can do half the same with my Caroline. It was good to see her exposed to their example, and John to their charm!
You spoiled us beyond belief... I have never seen the White House look so perfect. There is no hidden corner of it that is not beautiful now.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Letter to Richard and Pat Nixon after a White House visit (February 1971)] as quoted in "Can You Imagine The Gift You Gave Me?" by Bob Greene, in The Chicago Tribune (28 July 1999) http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1999-07-28/features/9907280018_1_white-house-john-kennedy-richard-nixon-library

Women , Beauty , Imagination , Childhood

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

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Quoted in The Unknown Wisdom of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1994) edited by Bill Adler

Sad , Sadness

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

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Inscription for cards at her husband’s funeral (25 November 1963)

God

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

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

On tabloid stories, as quoted in Newsweek (30 August 1994)

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

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Quoted in The Unknown Wisdom of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1994) edited by Bill Adler

Life

“An aim in life is the only fortune worth finding.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Attributed in Wisdom Through the Ages : Book Two (2003) by Helen Granat, p. 118; this actually is cited to Robert Louis Stevenson in The Law of Success (1928) by Napoleon Hill: "An aim in life is the only fortune worth finding; and it is not to be found in foreign lands, but in the heart itself."
Misattributed

Life

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

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

The "Camelot" interview (29 November 1963)

Kiss

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

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

On the White House; Quoted in A Hero for Our Time (1983) by Ralph G Martin

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

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

To her mother, Janet Auchincloss (22 November 1963); quoted in The Death of a President (1967) by William Manchester

“You know that anything -- Stas will take little Bobby to Africa -- I'll take them around the world + to the moon + back -- anything to help you + them now and always.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Undated letter to Ethel Kennedy following RFK's assassination, as quoted in "FBI seizes letter from Jackie Kennedy to RFK's widow" http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/14/texas.kennedy.letter/index.html (14 September 2009)

World , Help

“A camel makes an elephant feel like a jet plane.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

On a 1962 visit to India quoted in A Hero for Our Time (1983) by Ralph G Martin

Feeling

“Do you know what I think of history? … For a while I thought history was something that bitter old men wrote. But Jack loved history so… No one'll ever know everything about Jack. But … history made Jack what he was … this lonely, little sick boy … scarlet fever … this little boy sick so much of the time, reading in bed, reading history … reading the Knights of the Round Table … and he just liked that last song.
Then I thought, for Jack history was full of heroes. And if it made him this way, if it made him see the heroes, maybe other little boys will see. Men are such a combination of good and bad … He was such a simple man. But he was so complex, too. Jack had this hero idea of history, the idealistic view, but then he had that other side, the pragmatic side… his friends were all his old friends; he loved his Irish Mafia.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

The "Camelot" interview (29 November 1963)

Love , Men , Way , History

“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…”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

The "Camelot" interview (29 November 1963)

Strong , Sun

“All these people come to see the White House and they see practically nothing that dates back before 1948. Every boy who comes here should see things that develop his sense of history. For the girls, the house should look beautiful and lived-in. They should see what a fire in the fireplace and pretty flowers can do for a house; the White House rooms should give them a sense of all that. Everything in the White House must have a reason for being there. It would be sacrilege merely to "redecorate" it -- a word I hate. It must be restored -- and that has nothing to do with decoration. That is a question of scholarship.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Interview with Hugh Sidey, according to Kennedy Library https://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/Jacqueline-Kennedy-in-the-White-House.aspx (1 September 1961)

Hate , People , Beauty , History

“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.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

The "Camelot" interview (29 November 1963)

Beauty , Dead

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

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

The "Camelot" interview (29 November 1963)

Time

“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.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Quoted in A Hero for Our Time (1983) by Ralph G Martin

Horse , Summer

“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.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Quoted in The Unknown Wisdom of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1994) edited by Bill Adler

God , Thinking

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

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Interview with Publishers Weekly (19 April 1993)

Books

“They were gunning the motorcycles. There were these little backfires. There was one noise like that. I thought it was a backfire. Then next I saw Connally grabbing his arms and saying "no, no, no, no, no," with his fist beating. Then Jack turned and I turned. All I remember was a blue-gray building up ahead. Then Jack turned back so neatly, his last expression was so neat… you know that wonderful expression he had when they'd ask him a question about one of the ten million pieces they have in a rocket, just before he'd answer. He looked puzzled, then he slumped forward. He was holding out his hand … I could see a piece of his skull coming off. It was flesh-colored, not white — he was holding out his hand … I can see this perfectly clean piece detaching itself from his head. Then he slumped in my lap, his blood and his brains were in my lap … Then Clint Hill [the Secret Service man], he loved us, he made my life so easy, he was the first man in the car … We all lay down in the car … And I kept saying, Jack, Jack, Jack, and someone was yelling "he's dead, he's dead."”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

All the ride to the hospital I kept bending over him, saying "Jack, Jack, can you hear me, I love you, Jack."
The "Camelot" interview (29 November 1963)

Love , Life , Secret , Cars

“I want to be there when he dies.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

When told she couldn't access President Kennedy's hospital room (22 November 1963); quoted in The Death of a President (1967) by William Manchester

“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.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

The New York Times (15 September 1960)

Women , Hate , Clothes

“Minimum information given with maximum politeness.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Instructions to press secretary Pamela Turnure; Quoted in A Hero for Our Time (1983) by Ralph G Martin; sometimes rendered : "I want minimum information given with maximum politeness."