Presidents often disappoint, but first ladies rarely do.

First ladies throughout our history have been expected to be adoring wives and perfect mothers.

— Rosalynn Carter

Until Eleanor Roosevelt, there was only one or two First Ladies in all of American history who made an impact, who people could even…

— Gail Collins

These were in the days before anybody thought to criticize Congressmen, let alone first ladies, for making money on speeches. So Eleanor raked in…

— William A. Rusher

No matter how different our First Ladies have been - and as individual women they have ranged from recluses to vibrant hostesses to political…

— Margaret Truman Daniel

Historically, the most favorably viewed figure in any administration is the first lady, regardless of her husband's popularity. That is largely because first ladies…

— Ari Melber

The good diarist writes either for himself alone or for a posterity so distant that it can safely hear every secret and justly weigh…

— Virginia Woolf

First ladies are doing a lot. But the job remains undefined, frequently misunderstood, and subject to political attacks far nastier in some ways than…

— Margaret Truman Daniel

First Ladies have always been held like specimens under a media microscope.

— Andre Leon Talley

Almost all first ladies have had tremendous power on personnel issues, whether the public realized it or not, whether it was Barbara Bush or…

— Dee Dee Myers

You [future first ladies] will feel that you are no longer clothing yourself, you are dressing a public monument.

— Eleanor Roosevelt

I think the fact that she [Eleanor Roosevelt] was a woman probably in those days would have been an additional criticism, although first ladies…

— William A. Rusher

Even in Kitty Kelley's book, which is so negative, they talk about, as with all first ladies, that Nancy Reagan is constantly around to…

— Cynthia Nixon

Gay marriage has jumped out of the closet on to the front page. Everyone from the president of the U.S. to retired four-star general…

— Kitty Kelley

John F. Kennedy brought style and charisma to the White House and a first family that captivated the country: a handsome, witty president, an…

— Kitty Kelley

Both Kennedy and Obama exuded a dash of glamour in their roles as commander-in-chief and became the darlings of Hollywood. As president, each brought…

— Kitty Kelley