Top 50 Caroline Kennedy Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Change isn’t easy; it takes time.”

— Caroline Kennedy

2. “The bedrock of our democracy is the rule of law and that means we have to have an independent judiciary, judges who can make decisions independent of the political winds that are blowing.”

— Caroline Kennedy

3. “As much as we need a prosperous economy, we also need a prosperity of kindness and decency.”

— Caroline Kennedy

4. “It’s true, Christmas can feel like a lot of work, particularly for mothers. But when you look back on all the Christmases in your life, you’ll find you’ve created family traditions and lasting memories. Those memories, good and bad, are really what help to keep a family together over the long haul.”

— Caroline Kennedy

5. “In terms of my marriage, you know, falling in love with my husband was by far the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

— Caroline Kennedy

6. “When you make the right decision, it doesn’t really matter what anyone else thinks.”

— Caroline Kennedy

7. “To the extent that we are all educated and informed, we will be more equipped to deal with the gut issues that tend to divide us.”

— Caroline Kennedy

8. “Sharing the holiday with other people, and feeling that you’re giving of yourself, gets you past all the commercialism.”

— Caroline Kennedy

9. “Poetry is really a way of sharing feelings and ideas.”

— Caroline Kennedy

10. “I enjoy writing. I enjoy that kind of process.”

— Caroline Kennedy

11. “I never thought I’d be doing poetry books. I never really studied poetry. But the first one I did was after my mother died, and I realized that people sort of think and talk about her style and fashion, but in fact, what made her the person she was was really her love of reading and ideas.”

— Caroline Kennedy

12. “I grew up in New York, I love New York.”

— Caroline Kennedy

13. “It is not easy to stand up against your constituents or your friends or colleagues or your community and take a tough stand for something you believe is right. Because you always want to keep working and live to fight another battle and it might cost you your career.”

— Caroline Kennedy

14. “In a funny way, poems are suited to modern life. They’re short, they’re intense. Nobody has time to read a 700-page book. People read magazines, and a poem takes less time than an article.”

— Caroline Kennedy

15. “I have come to believe, more strongly than ever, that after people die they really do live on through those who love them.”

— Caroline Kennedy

16. “You have to remind kids to stay connected to the meaning of Christmas. Sometimes it takes a little bit of effort, but it’s so worth it.”

— Caroline Kennedy

17. “After my mom died, there was so much written about her fashion and her style and all that, and I felt that one of the most important parts of her was missing, her real intellectual curiosity.”

— Caroline Kennedy

18. “I have a lifelong devotion to public service.”

— Caroline Kennedy

19. “I don’t remember my father reading to me, but I remember him telling me bedtime stories. I got to pick what was in them, and then he’d make them up.”

— Caroline Kennedy

20. “Our mothers are our first teachers, and we teach others the same lessons we learn from them. As a child, when your mother believes in you, you believe in yourself, and when that happens, there is nothing you can’t do. As a mother, that is the greatest gift we can give to a child.”

— Caroline Kennedy

21. “In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.”

— Caroline Kennedy

22. “I know my mother so well, so it’s hard for me to remember that people have a certain image of her, but they don’t really know her personality.”

— Caroline Kennedy

23. “The biggest problem is people are afraid of poetry, think they can’t understand it or that it will be boring.”

— Caroline Kennedy

24. “Education was the most important value in our home when I was growing up.”

— Caroline Kennedy

25. “Well, the role of money in politics is pretty corrupting right now.”

— Caroline Kennedy

26. “I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president – not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.”

— Caroline Kennedy

27. “People don’t always realize that my parents shared a sense of intellectual curiosity and a love of reading and of history.”

— Caroline Kennedy

28. “Well, I think, you know, the arts are really what – one of the things that make this country strong. We always think it’s our economy or our military power, but in fact, I think it’s our culture, our civilization, our ideas, our creativity.”

— Caroline Kennedy

29. “I grew up in a household where reading was encouraged. My mother believed in the power of words, and my father obviously did too.”

— Caroline Kennedy

30. “I’m not as shy as everybody makes me out to be.”

— Caroline Kennedy

31. “Most of the books that I’ve written have been focused on, sort of, the individual, and sort of, either a voice, a personal voice, or a kind of transforming event where they step forward to fight for something they value.”

— Caroline Kennedy

32. “Now is the time to move this country forward.”

— Caroline Kennedy

33. “I think one of my father’s great legacies is the people that he inspired and the generation that he inspired transformed America through civil rights, women’s rights, equal justice, and they’ve passed that on to their children and grandchildren.”

— Caroline Kennedy

34. “Falling in love is a series of moments in which the ordinary becomes extraordinary. Those moments are not continuous, but the sense of union with another person is just about the best thing there is.”

— Caroline Kennedy

35. “Many people remember that spirit that President Kennedy summoned forth. Many people look to me as somebody who embodies that sense of possibility.”

— Caroline Kennedy

36. “Well there’s nobody who has a more supportive husband than I do, and he has a business that he runs, and it’s his own business, so he has work to do, my kids have school to do, I mean, people have – there are other things in life besides politics.”

— Caroline Kennedy

37. “I am, you know, a Democrat through and through. I’ve always voted Democratic. You know, that is where my heart lies.”

— Caroline Kennedy

38. “I know how important it is to, you know, to be my own person.”

— Caroline Kennedy

39. “In my family in particular, I think, there was a sense we have to work twice as hard.”

— Caroline Kennedy

40. “The most beautiful people are all in the library.”

— Caroline Kennedy

41. “She Walks in Beauty Like the Night Of Cloudless Climes and Starry Skies.”

— Caroline Kennedy

42. “I feel that my father’s greatest legacy was the people he inspired to get involved in public service and their communities, to join the Peace Corps, to go into space. And really that generation transformed this country in civil rights, social justice, the economy and everything.”

— Caroline Kennedy

43. “There’s so much to think about when you’re becoming an adult, and there’s so many great poems about that apprehension and excitement.”

— Caroline Kennedy

44. “One of the greatest gifts my brother and I received from my mother was her love of literature and language. With their boundless energy, libraries open the door to these worlds and so many others. I urge young and old alike to embrace all that libraries have to offer.”

— Caroline Kennedy

45. “Growing up in politics I know that women decide all elections because we do all the work.”

— Caroline Kennedy

46. “I feel like my grandparents and parents gave me a tremendous amount. And if I can pass some of that on, then I’ll be very happy.”

— Caroline Kennedy

47. “The amazing thing about the winners is that none of them really felt that they were doing anything special. They just felt like it was the right thing to do.”

— Caroline Kennedy

48. “I’ve raised three kids. I’m a lawyer. I’ve written books on the Constitution.”

— Caroline Kennedy

49. “I may, and I think I represent a tradition that means a lot to me, which has really always been about fighting for others, for middle-class families, for working class – for working people, you know, and that’s a tradition and a commitment that I take very seriously.”

— Caroline Kennedy

50. “I doubt women will be surprised that men write more often about the loss of face and the loss of power, while women tend to write about the loss of self.”

— Caroline Kennedy