13 Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Quotes on History

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis quotes on history

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

   Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

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

13. 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?

19. The river of sludge will go on and on. It isn't about me.

    Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

23. 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.' All the ride to the hospital I kept bending over him, saying 'Jack, Jack, can you hear me, I love you, Jack.'

24. 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.

25. 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 -

26. 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.

32. 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.

33. 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.

46. When Harvard men say they have graduated from Radcliffe, then we've made it.

    Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

52. Let the skeptics snort about Camelot, but there was something during the Kennedy years that was magic. Jackie was more of that than anyone admitted for a long while. She smoothed the rough Kennedy edges. As much as anyone in those heady days, she grasped the epic dimensions of the adventure. No small portion of the glamour of the Kennedy stewardship that lives on today came from her standards of public propriety and majesty.

54. First the world will call me Bouvier, then I'll change to Jackie K. After my date with tragedy, I will let Aristotle take care of me, I want to be Jackie Onassis oh yeah....