And They Called It Camelot: A Novel of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis

by Stephanie Marie Thornton

Better a bad decision today than a good one three weeks late.”

“Weakness isn’t something you’re born with, Jackie; you learn it.

I’d taken to speaking more quietly than usual, a reminder that I was nothing like my brash mother, but also a way to maintain an air of lovely inconsequence, so no one—including Jack—knew what I was really thinking.

Even in death, there can be beauty and hope, if only we dare to look hard enough.

If you bungle raising your children, I’d thought to myself as I’d let her tiny fingers clasp mine that first night, I don’t think whatever else you do well matters very much.

I want to wring every second out of each day as if it was my last, and I want America to do the same—to stop this stagnation so she can accomplish great and mighty things simply because we can.”

The White House was not just a prize to be achieved,

“I believe that the times require imagination and courage and perseverance. I’m asking each of you to be pioneers toward that New Frontier.”

Men are less petty than women. Women hold grudges, men don’t.

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”

“My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”