Betty Ford Quotations

I think once I made up my mind that I was allergic to alcohol, and that's what I learned, it made sense to me. And I think it was kind of pointed out that you know if you were allergic to strawberries, you wouldn't eat strawberries. And that made sense to me.

I believe the equal rights amendment is a necessity of life for all citizens. The cabinet sometimes felt that I shouldn't be so outspoken.

I have an independent streak. You know, it's kind of hard to tell a independent woman what to do.

It's always been my feeling that God lends you your children until they're about eighteen years old. If you haven't made your points with them by then, it's too late.

The search for human freedom can never be complete without freedom for women.

I really didn't want to have my name on the center, because it just seemed like it was too much of a personal thing.

This is a place where you can go, that you can feel safe and look inside yourself and discover yourself.

Not my power, but the power of the position, a power which could be used to help.

I know I was an alcoholic because I was preoccupied whether alcohol was going to be served or not.

And I have always told the patients when I talk to them. When they come around and say, "What will you have to drink? Oh that's right you don't drink." Just speak up and say, 'Of course I drink. But I just don't drink alcohol.'

My makeup wasn't smeared, I wasn't disheveled, I behaved politely, and I never finished off a bottle, so how could I be alcoholic?

But my activities have been pretty much focused in the last almost 30 years on the recovery, of my own recovery, the understanding for my family of my recovery.

I'll never forget the day that I was told I would have to have a mastectomy. My reaction to the words was total denial.

Isn't that wonderful? When we drove through several of the places we lived - Grand Rapids, Washington - they all had those placards. That they stood by the street and had in their hands placards that said 'Gerald Our Ford'. That meant so much to us as we were driving into Washington.

We're full all the time. And people do have good success and I think one of the programs at the center, the Continuing Care, helps them with their success. Because it's difficult the first year.

For 14 years, I'd been on medication for the pinched nerve, the arthritis, the muscle spasms in my neck, and I'd lost my tolerance for pills. If I had a single drink, the alcohol, on top of the pills, would make me groggy.

I think it wasn't so much that the White House altered me in any essential way as that I found the resources with which to respond to a series of challenges. You never know what you can do until you have to do it. In the beginning, it was like going to a party you're terrified of, and finding out to your amazement that you're having a good time.

When other women have this same operation, it doesn't make any headlines. But the fact that I was the wife of the President put it in headlines and brought before the public this particular experience I was going through. It made a lot of women realize that it could happen to them. I'm sure I've saved at least one person maybe more.

Holding these babies in my arms makes me realize the miracle my husband and I began.

The problem with drugs is that people forget to stop doing them. There’s a time and a place for everything, Mr. Mackey, and it’s called college.

Alcohol may pick you up a little bit, but it lets you down in a hurry.

When I say we've had an ideal marriage, I'm not just talking about physical attraction, which I can imagine can wear pretty thin if it's all a couple has built on. We've had that and a whole lot more.

My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather has passed away at 93 years of age. His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country.

I had thought I would hate being First Lady... I loved it.

What man could afford to pay for all the things a wife does, when she's a cook, a mistress, a chauffeur, a nurse, a baby-sitter? But because of this, I feel women ought to have equal rights, equal Social Security, equal opportunities for education, an equal chance to establish credit.

Any woman should have the right to a safe and legal abortion.

I don't feel that because I'm First Lady, I'm very different from what I was before. It can happen to anyone. After all, it has happened to anyone.

Friends aren't any more important than breath or blood to a high school senior.

I've learned a lot about myself. Most of it is all right. When I add up the pluses and subtract the minuses, I still come out pretty well.

A liberated woman is one who feels confident in herself, and is happy in what she is doing. She is a person who has a sense of self-it all comes down to a freedom of choice.

Having babies is a blessing, not a duty,

I feel it's important to be active. People who retire, sit by their swimming pool and golf course and plan to relax have a very empty life.

Being a lady does not require silence.

You can make it, but it's easier if you don't have to do it alone.

I don't look at what I've lost. I look instead at what I have left.

You never know what you can do until you have to do it.

A housewife deserves to be honored as much as a woman who earns her living in the marketplace. I consider bringing up children a responsible job. In fact, being a good housewife seems to me a much tougher job than going to the office and getting paid for it.

That's what we're here on this Earth for, to help others.

It's my feeling that God lends you your children until they're about eighteen years old. If you haven't made your points with them by then, it's too late.