The saying goes, Behind every great man there’s a great woman.

It’s not clear who came up with that, though we certainly hear it all the time and in many variations. (My personal favorite variation is A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.) On Presidents’ Day, we wanted to honor the women who have supported the man in the Oval Office – while these First Ladies were not elected to their positions, without them, their husbands’ presidencies would have been very different. Let’s hear it for the women behind the Presidents.

“It is one of my sources of happiness never to desire a knowledge of other people’s business.”

-Dolley Madison

“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.”

-Betty Ford

“If we mean to have heroes, statesmen and philosophers, we should have learned women.”

-Abigail Adams

“The clash of ideas is the sound of freedom.”

-Lady Bird Johnson

 “You must accept that you might fail; then, if you do your best and still don’t win, at least you can be satisfied that you’ve tried. If you don’t accept failure as a possibility, you don’t set high goals, you don’t branch out, you don’t try – you don’t take the risk.”

-Rosalynn Carter

“You must do the things you think you cannot do.”

-Eleanor Roosevelt

“Choose people who will lift you up. Find people who will make you better.”

-Michelle Obama