Jackie Quotes

“at this time, in anticipation of her eightieth birthday. “Either you survive or you succumb. If you survive, you profit by the experience. You understand the tragedies of other people’s lives. You’re more sympathetic and you’re a broader person.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“Winston Churchill once said, ‘It’s the courage to continue that counts.’ I believe that’s true, and I have so much admiration for my daughter’s courage.” Jackie was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery, next to her husband John Fitzgerald Kennedy—a president and his First Lady, side by side for all eternity. Nearby rested their son Patrick and daughter Arabella. And all was just as it should”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis died the night of May 19, 1994, with Caroline, John, and Maurice at her side. She was just sixty-four. Diagnosed in January, gone barely five months later.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“There should never be a wedding without some tears,” she had told Jamie when their sister Janet Jr. died, “or a funeral without some laughter.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“passages aloud from some of Jackie’s favorite poets, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Robert Frost, and Emily Dickinson.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“just as a person must not just think of only the happiness and greatness that they’d experienced. If you separate the happiness and the sadness from each other, neither is an accurate account of what life is truly like. Life is made up of both the good and the bad—and they cannot be separated from each other. It’s a mistake to try to do that.” “What a shame, “she now told Jack, “to spend so much time tormented by a thing I could never change.” Then again, Jackie mused, maybe that’s what her husband deserved—for her to never really get over it. All she knew for certain was that she was still conflicted.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“One must not dwell only on the tragedies that life holds for us all,”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“there is a destiny that rules over us, because no one whom I know about or whom I read about seems to be completely happy during a long time.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“the life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“I don’t battle my way through life anymore,’ she told me. ‘I’ve done that. But that’s not how I choose to live now. It doesn’t work. Now I try to stay calm, steady, and centered.’ Then, chuckling, she added, ‘Oh, and I also drink.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“She told that same friend something Ari used to say, an aphorism some might’ve found offensive but which Jackie thought was clever, if cynical. “He used to say, ‘A woman is like the world,’” she recalled. “‘At twenty years of age, she’s like Africa, semi-explored. At thirty, she’s India, warm, mature and mysterious. At forty, she’s America, technically perfect, but superficial because, deep down, she’s troubled. At fifty, she’s Europe, completely and utterly in ruins. And at sixty, she’s Siberia. Everyone knows where she is, but no one wants to go to her.’ After we had a good laugh, I made him promise to tell me that story every ten years,” Jackie concluded. She added, “I’m fifty now and, I guess, completely and utterly in ruins.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“perhaps due to the women’s movement, or maybe therapy or perhaps just because of wisdom that comes with age. “Don’t be apologetic,” she wrote at the top of her letter. “You’ve had it. This is the 20th Century, not the 19th when little women stayed home on pedestals with the kids and her rosary. “Forbidden fruit is what is exciting,” she continued. “It takes much more of a real man to have a deep relationship with the woman he lives with. The routine of married life can become boring. Don’t ask permission,” she wrote. “Be a bit mysterious. Then he can’t plan things around your absence.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“Roman proverb: ‘The way we die is sadder than death itself.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“All that remained was to hear the final death knell. It came in 1974 in the form of a devastating autoimmune disease called myasthenia gravis. It’s so rare an illness, when Ari received the diagnosis, he viewed it as punishment from the gods for his hubris, boastfulness, and extravagant lifestyle. “How can I lose?” he’d often asked when he was in good health. “The rules don’t even apply to me.” Now, he felt he was paying the price for his massive success by losing everything—his son, his money, even his health. Soon, he wouldn’t be able to keep his eyes open, the neuromuscular disorder weakening his face so much. It seemed like a cruel, horrible way to go out. “I may as well be dead now,” he told Jackie. “I can’t live like this.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“Patricia Atwood, Dr. Kris’s secretary, in an email. “She felt they wouldn’t get anywhere until they really faced it head-on. She liked to say the measure of a woman wasn’t what she’d been through, it was how well she coped and how honest she was with herself going forward.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“Onassis would fly in from time to time that summer and autumn [1972] and stay at his suite at the Pierre,” recalled Stanley Levin, who helped manage the Onassis empire. “He’d call Jackie and ask to see her. Whereas early in their marriage, she’d have him stay at 1040, now she didn’t want him around, which would enrage him. ‘I’m Aristotle fucking Onassis,’ he’d roar. I’d say, ‘Yeah, well, she’s Jackie fucking Kennedy, and she’s not going to kiss your ass, Ari. She already got what she wanted out of you.’ He said he wanted to see the kids if he couldn’t see her. She’d allow it with John only; she wanted him to have a relationship with the boy, not so much Caroline.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“Either you survive or you succumb. If you survive, you profit by the experience. You understand the tragedies of other people’s lives. You’re more sympathetic and you’re a broader person.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“Where Jackie’s immediate family is concerned, the marriage did a lot of damage. In October 1969, Lee returned from another visit to “the nervous hospital” in Switzerland, having once again been treated for anorexia, which became an even bigger problem after the marriage. This time, Jackie, not Stas, paid for it. Lee was supposed to stay at the clinic for six weeks. After three, however, she left the facility. Jackie thought she was still in Switzerland when Lee called from London, said she’d had “enough treatment” and was fine. Though Jackie was upset and tried to convince her to return, Lee refused.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“She was Jackie Kennedy, the most famous woman in the world,” noted Stanley Levin, “and that was worth all the money in the world to a man like Aristotle Onassis. He felt she’d legitimize him in the eyes of the world. I also believe that, deep down, he loved her in his own way and wanted to help her. His heart went out to her. She had that effect on people. He had Maria Callas on the side. Jackie accepted it. She knew the terms of their arrangement from the very beginning.” In years to come, there would be many published accounts about the Onassises’ sex life, which was always reported as being very robust. Onassis often bragged about their lovemaking, but it was all for show to boost his image. Some of his employees from that time now admit he actually paid them to spread these sorts of rumors in the tabloids.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“In the end, André Meyer was able to work with Onassis to get the settlement up to $2 million (which would be about $150 million in today’s money). In the past, it was always thought to be $3 million, but documents surfaced in 2020 to clarify that it was $2 million.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“Holding in all that grief the way Kennedys hold in grief is worse than just letting it out,” Jackie once said.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“Anyone who knew Rose also understood that also playing into her decision was how much money the Kennedys would save if Jackie married well. She wouldn’t need their measly two hundred thousand dollars, anymore, and I’m sure that didn’t escape Rose. The diamond bracelet Onassis gave Rose toward the end of the visit didn’t hurt.” “Jackie deserved a full life, a happy future,” Rose would later write. “Jack had been gone five years, thus she had plenty of time to think things over. She was not a person who would jump rashly. I decided to put my doubts aside and give her all the emotional support I could in what I realized was bound to be a time of stress for her in the weeks and months ahead.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“Jack and Bobby had always had such strong animus for Onassis, and it had been less than two months since Bobby’s death. Maybe it was too soon? “My taking Aristo there is loaded with symbolism,” was how Jackie put it to Roswell Gilpatric. “I’m not sure how I’ll react to it, it’s so emotional for me. It’s facing the future. It’s letting go of the past.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“Bobby’s announcement set off a dizzying couple of weeks of American history. Being blamed for the Vietnam War combined with his not wanting to run against Bobby, LBJ announced at the end of the month that he wouldn’t seek reelection. Four days later, Martin Luther King was murdered in Memphis, causing the country to erupt in race riots. It seemed to many Americans that only Bobby could unite the country. Jackie now felt she had no choice but to level with him about Onassis. Bobby couldn’t believe his ears when Jackie talked about having Aristotle Onassis in her life. When did she become so serious about him? He called the Greek tycoon “a family weakness,” alluding to Lee’s relationship with him. Besides the fact that he thought Onassis was terrible for her and her children, he said her association with him could hurt his candidacy, just as she’d anticipated.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“Meanwhile, Artemis continued her matchmaking campaign. According to sources very close to the Onassis family, she brought to her brother’s attention the possibility that if Bobby Kennedy ever became president, “he’ll put the horns on you,” meaning he would be out to get him. This had already occurred to him. As president, Bobby would come after Onassis with every tool of the United States government that was available to him, and it would likely result in indictments. But if he was Jackie’s husband? Bobby would probably back off in deference to her. Also, Artemis knew that her brother had an idea of building a superport in New Hampshire. It had been on his mind for some time. With his bad reputation in the States, there was no way that could ever happen. But as Jackie’s husband? Maybe.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“Onassis was now sixty-one, with a net worth estimated to be about $500 million, about $4 billion in today’s money. Not only was he still involved with Jackie’s sister Lee Radziwill, the famous opera star Maria Callas had been his mistress since 1959. It was because of her that his marriage to Tina Niarchos, mother of his two children, had ended. Famously obsessed with each other, the press chronicled every dysfunctional, abusive Onassis-Callas moment.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“People say money can’t buy happiness, Jackie,” Janet Jr. told her. “Only people who don’t know where to shop,” Jackie quipped.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“Kennedy had brought him into the administration to work under Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara because he worried the latter was inexperienced in the political machinations of Washington. Historians have said that if not for those two men, things might have turned out differently in 1962. Gilpatric and McNamara had argued vociferously against escalating the conflict by bombing Cuba, which was the route National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy wanted to take. He and McNamara proposed the blockade as a strong response solution, which turned out to be the right decision.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“At first blush, Camelot is a fable about how idealism and right can endure despite human frailty and envy. It’s also about King Arthur’s flawed wife, Guinevere, who betrays him with his best friend, Lancelot, thereby triggering the kingdom’s downfall. It’s not exactly romantic or triumphant. But that was overthinking it, and Jackie knew it. She was always whimsical about Jack and his family, though. She often drafted poems that cast JFK in a romantic, heroic light, such as one that ends: He would find love He would never find peace For he must go seeking The Golden Fleece All the things he was going to be All of the things of the wind and sea. That was Jackie, romantic and idealistic where Jack was concerned. The poem is dated October 1953, ten years before his death.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret

“Don’t let it be forgot, that for one brief shining moment, there was Camelot. There’ll never be Camelot again.”
― J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackie: Public, Private, Secret