10 hilarious and inspirational quotes from former first lady Barbara Bush

Former First Lady, Barbara Bush, has passed away at the age of 92. Family spokesperson, Jim McGrath, confirmed the news in a statement posted to Twitter, announcing that Bush died on Tuesday evening at her home in Houston, Texas.

As the wife of the 41st President of the United States, George H W Bush, and the mother of the 43rd, George W Bush, Barbara Bush was the second woman in American history to have a son follow his father to the White House.

Vocal in championing causes close to her heart, Bush was committed to improving literacy and was an early supporter of the civil rights movement. She was also known for her sense of humour, once joking that her son, George W Bush, was "dumb as a fox".

However, behind her advocacy and her combative nature, the uncontested Martriach of the Bush dynasty was understood to be capable of holding the Presidency herself. Certainly, during a low point in George H W Bush's 1992 campaign, he himself remarked that "If Barbara were running this year she’d be elected." Here are some of her best quotes...

1. Something to live by 

"At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a children, or a parent."

2. On being a mother 

"You have to love your children unselfishly. That’s hard. But it’s the only way."

3. Bush was a proponent of hard work over everything else 

"You don’t just luck into things as much as you’d like to think you do. You build step by step, whether it’s friendships or opportunities."

4. On being true to yourself 

"Why be afraid of what people will say? Those who care about you will say, Good luck! and those who care only about themselves will never say anything worth listening to anyway."

5. Literacy was a cause close to the former First Lady's heart

"If more people could read, write, and comprehend, we could be much closer to solving so many of the other problems our country faces today."

6. On charity

"Giving frees us from the familiar territory of our own needs by opening our mind to the unexplained worlds occupied by the needs of others."

7. Success isn't just found in the numbers

"Never lose sight of the fact that the most important yardstick of your success will be how you treat other people - your family, friends, and coworkers, and even strangers you meet along the way ."

8. On Bill Clinton...

"A man might forget where he parks or where he lives, but he never forgets oral sex, no matter how bad it is."

9. Bush was known for her sense of humour

"I married the first man I ever kissed. When I tell this to my children, they just about throw up."

10. "Everyone has something to give"

"Some people give time, some money, some their skills and connections, some literally give their life's blood. But everyone has something to give."

"I want to be known as a wife, a mother, a grandmother," Mrs Bush asserted in 1988. "That’s what I am. And I’d like to be known as someone who really cared about people and worked very, very hard to make America more literate." I think we can all agree - that in that venture - Barbara Bush largely succeeded.