Betty Ford

I believe the equal rights amendment is a necessity of life for all citizens. The cabinet sometimes felt that I shouldn't be so outspoken.

The search for human freedom can never be complete without freedom for women.

I'll never forget the day that I was told I would have to have a mastectomy. My reaction to the words was total denial.

This is a place where you can go, that you can feel safe and look inside yourself and discover yourself.

My makeup wasn't smeared, I wasn't disheveled, I behaved politely, and I never finished off a bottle, so how could I be alcoholic?

Not my power, but the power of the position, a power which could be used to help.

I know I was an alcoholic because I was preoccupied whether alcohol was going to be served or not.

It's my feeling that God lends you your children until they're about eighteen years old. If you haven't made your points with them by then, it's too late.

We're full all the time. And people do have good success and I think one of the programs at the center, the Continuing Care, helps them with their success. Because it's difficult the first year.

I think once I made up my mind that I was allergic to alcohol, and that's what I learned, it made sense to me. And I think it was kind of pointed out that you know if you were allergic to strawberries, you wouldn't eat strawberries. And that made sense to me.

It's always been my feeling that God lends you your children until they're about eighteen years old. If you haven't made your points with them by then, it's too late.

A housewife deserves to be honored as much as a woman who earns her living in the marketplace. I consider bringing up children a responsible job. In fact being a good housewife seems to me a much tougher job than going to the office and getting paid for it.

I have an independent streak. You know, it's kind of hard to tell a independent woman what to do.

I really didn't want to have my name on the center, because it just seemed like it was too much of a personal thing.

And I have always told the patients when I talk to them. When they come around and say, 'What will you have to drink? Oh that's right you don't drink.' Just speak up and say, 'Of course I drink. But I just don't drink alcohol.'

Having babies is a blessing not a duty.

Isn't that wonderful? When we drove through several of the places we lived - Grand Rapids, Washington - they all had those placards. That they stood by the street and had in their hands placards that said 'Gerald Our Ford'. That meant so much to us as we were driving into Washington.

But my activities have been pretty much focused in the last almost 30 years on the recovery, of my own recovery, the understanding for my family of my recovery.