“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 , book My Turn

Foreword
My Turn (1989)
Context: 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.
While I loved being first lady, my eight years with that title were the most difficult years of my life. Both of my parents died while Ronnie was president, and my husband and I were both operated on for cancer. Before we had even settled in, Ronnie was shot and almost killed. Then there was the pressure of living under the intense scrutiny of the media, and the frustration of frequently being misunderstood. Everything I did or said seemed to generate controversy, and it often seemed that you couldn’t open a newspaper without seeing a story about me — my husband and me, my children and me, Donald Regan and me, and so on.
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.
In many ways, I think I served as a lightning rod; and in any case, I came to realize that while Ronald Reagan was an extremely popular president, some people didn’t like his wife very much. Something about me, or the image people had of me, just seemed to rub them the wrong way.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "In 1981, when Ronnie and I moved to Washington, I never dreamed that our eight years there would be a time of so much e…" by Nancy Reagan?
Nancy Reagan photo
Nancy Reagan 25
actress and first lady of the United States 1921–2016

Related quotes

Yann Martel photo

“High calls low and low calls high. I tell you, if you were in such dire straits as I was, you too would elevate your thoughts. The lower you are, the higher your mind will want to soar.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Mitt Romney photo

“This election, this presidential election, I think has underscored underneath it several times. We want change. And it's not change in the White House so much, as change in Washington.”

Mitt Romney (1947) American businessman and politician

2008-01-04
Countdown with Keith Olbermann
MSNBC
Television
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22540882/
2008

Andrew Yang photo

“Deaths now outnumber births among white people in more than half the states in the country. Much of this is low birth rates and white men dying from substance abuse and suicide. Our life expectancy has declined for 3 years. We need to do much more.”

Andrew Yang (1975) American entrepreneur

15 February 2019 https://twitter.com/andrewyangvfa/status/1096442292527874048

“Since suffering a concussion eight years ago, I find my inside emotions are right to the front and as such, when I heard that Antonio Carlos Jobim had died in December of 1994 I was much affected, I experienced happenings like no other time in my life. While sleeping one night, I dreamed that I was conducting a recording session with strings in Brazil and we were performing Jobim's "Corcovado," except that besides thje melody and harmony, there was polyharmonic bass line. As I awakened from this dream, I went to my piano and wrote down what I had dreamed.”

Clare Fischer (1928–2012) American keyboardist, composer, arranger, and bandleader

Explaining the genesis of the track "Corcovado Fúnebre" in the liner notes from Clare Fischer's Jazz Corps

Charles Kingsley photo

“I am haunted by the human chimpanzees I saw [in Ireland] . . . I don't believe they are our fault. . . . But to see white chimpanzees is dreadful; if they were black, one would not feel it so much. . . .”

Charles Kingsley (1819–1875) English clergyman, historian and novelist

In a letter written from Markree Castle, Sligo to his wife dated July 4th 1860. Charles Kingsley: His Letters and Memoirs https://archive.org/details/charleskingsleyh00kingiala/page/308 (1877)

Lotfi A. Zadeh photo

“Well, I knew it was going to be important. That much I knew. In fact, I had thought about sealing it in a dated envelope with my predictions and then opening it 20-30 years later to see if my intuitions were right. I realized this paper marked a new direction. I used to think about it this way-that one day Fuzzy Logic would turn out to be one of the most important things to come out of our Electrical Engineering Computer Systems Division at Berkeley. I never dreamed it would become a worldwide phenomenon. My expectations were much more modest.”

Lotfi A. Zadeh (1921–2017) Electrical engineer and computer scientist

Answer to the question: "Back in 1965 when you published your initial paper on Fuzzy Logic, how did you think it would be accepted?"
1990s, Interview with Lotfi Zadeh, Creator of Fuzzy Logic (1994)

John Adams photo

“I believe there is no one Principle, which predominates in human Nature so much in every Stage of Life, from the Cradle to the Grave, in Males and females, old and young, black and white, rich and poor, high and low, as this Passion for Superiority.”

John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States

Letter to Abigail Adams (22 May 1777), as quoted in And the War Came: The Slavery Quarrel and the American Civil War https://books.google.com/books?id=WbFznb7PSGsC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false, by Donald J. Meyers
1770s

Mick Mulvaney photo

“As a right-wing conservative and founding member of the Freedom Caucus, I never expected that the co-worker I would work closest, and best, with at the White House would be a "globalist."”

Mick Mulvaney (1967) Director of the Office of Management and Budget

Gary Cohn is one of the smartest people I’ve ever worked with. Having the chance to collaborate with him will remain one of the highlights of my career in public service.”

6 March 2018 https://twitter.com/OMBPress/status/971171732454129664

Jack Conte photo

“The growth of the creator economy has accelerated much faster than I ever could have dreamed of when we began this journey eight years ago. We are at a critical inflection point and I’m excited to partner closely with Tiffany to scale our teams to power our next phase of growth.”

Jack Conte (1984) American musician and entrepreneur

Source: Patreon chief: IPO “on the table” but not all creators will benefit https://www.verdict.co.uk/patreon-ipo/ (October 22, 2021)

Alberto Gonzales photo

“(Asked by John King about the political climate that existed in Washington at the time, and criticism of the Department of Justice under his management) Listen I don't expect an apology from men like Chuck Schumer, and I would put him and other individuals who were attacking me at the top of the list contributing to the low, low public perception of Congress, the integrity of Congress quite frankly.”

Alberto Gonzales (1955) 80th United States Attorney General

http://johnkingusa.blogs.cnn.com/2010/07/23/gonzales-i-feel-angry/ July 23, 2010.

Related topics