Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Shared a Beautiful Marriage: Their Sweetest Quotes About One Another

Sweet romances come and go, but true love is something else entirely, and that was what Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter shared with one another for decades. The first couple entered the White House in 1977, but their love and support for each other was a well-known aspect of their public lives by then. As the former governor of Georgia and a popular politician, Jimmy was a champion of progressive politics, equality, peace and opportunity – his wife, Rosalynn, was right by his side the entire time. 

Jimmy and Rosalynn were both born in the small town of Plains, Georgia, made the farming way of life central to their belief systems, lived life with humanity in mind and found strength in one another. They got married in 1946, welcomed four children together, navigated professional politics and yet never lost sight of the love and respect they had for one another. Their love was – and is – one to inspire us all, and we’re taking a look back at their sweetest quotes about the marriage they shared for so many years. 

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Jimmy Carter’s quotes about his wife Rosalynn

• “Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished. She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.”

•  “She’s the girl I want to marry.”  – Jimmy to his mother after his first date with Rosalynn 

• “I can’t really quantify it or describe it in words. But I knew that she was quiet. She was extremely intelligent. She was very timid, by the way, beautiful, and there was just something about her that was irresistible.”

• “I love her more now than I did to begin with — which is saying a lot, because I loved her a lot.”

• “It’s hard to live until you’re 95 years old. I think the best explanation for that is to marry the best spouse, someone who will take care of you and engage and do things to challenge you and keep you alive and interested in life.”

• “The best thing I ever did was marrying Rosalynn. That’s the pinnacle of my life. We’ve had 69 years together — still together. So that’s the best thing that happened to me.” 

• “There’s very seldom a decision that I make that I don’t discuss with her, either to tell her after the fact what I’ve done or, very frequently, to tell her my options and seek her advice.”

• “I have often wanted to drown my troubles, but I can’t get my wife to go swimming.”

• “My darling, every time I have ever been away from you, I have been thrilled when I returned to discover just how wonderful you are. While I’m away, I try to convince myself that you really are not — could not be — as sweet and beautiful as I remember. But when I see you, I fall in love with you all over again. Does that seem strange to you? It doesn’t to me.” — Jimmy’s letter to Rosalynn while serving in the Navy 

• “I’ve never won an argument with her; and the only times I thought I had I found out the argument wasn’t over yet.”

• “We’ve come to understand each other much better. I was by far the dominant person in the marriage at the beginning, but not anymore. She’s just as strong, if not stronger than I am. She’s fully equal to me in every way in our relationship, in making business decisions, and she makes most of the decisions about family affairs.” 

• “She’d smile, and birds would feel that they no longer had to sing, or it may be I failed to hear their song.”

• “We have a couple of rules that we follow. We give each other plenty of space. She has a lot of interests that I don’t share. We get together whenever we can. But I have a lot of interests that she doesn’t share. And secondly we’ve had a standing rule that we follow pretty meticulously, sometimes with great difficulty. That is not to go to sleep angry.”

Related: Jimmy Carter’s Quotes Are Inspiring: Read His Messages on Leadership, Peace, Humanity and More

• “I know for my sake it’s been the best thing I’ve ever had happen to me — marrying Rosalynn and living together for so long, growing to know each other more and more intimately every day in married life.”

• “For 75 years of marriage we’ve always gone deeper in our love for one another. I think that’s a kind of extraordinary thing. Doesn’t happen to very many couples, but it certainly happened to us.” 

• “‘I love you the goodest.’ That’s what my mother and daddy used to say back and forth, and I picked it up with Rosa.”

Rosalynn Carter’s quotes about her husband Jimmy

• “The moon was full in the sky, conversation came easy, and I was in love.” – Rosalynn after her first date with Jimmy

• “Over the years, we became not only friends and lovers, but partners. He has always thought I could do anything, and because of that, I/we have had some wonderful adventures and challenges.” 

• “I spent a lot of time at [the Carters’] house, but he was always off at school. He was so good to Ruth. He would write her letters, and she talked about him all the time. And she had his photograph on the wall in her bedroom. And I literally did fall in love with that photograph.”

• “I don’t think I’m smarter than Jimmy Carter, but I loved the political life. I loved it. I like the intrigue … having one election, people who really support you and the next election will be your opponents, and the ones who were your opponents will be your supporters … It was just fascinating to me. I miss it.”

• “Jimmy and I had always worked side by side; it’s a tradition in Southern families, and one that is not seen as in any way demeaning to the man. Once the press and our persistent opponents heard about my attendance at the (Cabinet) meetings, very soon it was rumored that I was ‘telling’ Jimmy what to do! They obviously didn’t know Jimmy!” 

• “I knew that when my husband was elected governor that I had to have something more to do than to pour tea. I did not intend to spend my time in the governor’s mansion in that way.”

• “I tell him what I think.”

• “I think it’s about time that people really realize what Jimmy did.” – Rosalynn on her husband’s career in politics 

• “I loved the politics. Jimmy didn’t. He’s not a politician. He thinks if something needs to be done, you need to do it. And he doesn’t like all the bickering back and forth. But I loved the politics.”

• “I think we give each other space and we try to do things together. We’re always looking for things we can do together, like birding and fly-fishing and just anything we can find to do together.”

• “It was not easy. It’s the worst thing — I mean, it’s probably the closest thing to bringing us to a divorce that we ever did. It was awful.” – Rosalynn on writing a book with Jimmy  

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