Top 55 Margaret Trudeau Quotes

I wince at some of the things I did as the young wife of Canada’s fifteenth prime minister, Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

Growing up in Vancouver in the 1950s, I was often capricious and temperamental, quick to laugh, even quicker to feel despair, prone to flailing my arms, pouting and crying when things didn’t go my way, or I thought something was unfair, or I was bullied by my sisters.

I shouldn’t say it, but I found that the French can be the most arrogant people in the world if they want to be.

I know, as a mother, it hurts you very much to see your children suffer.

I thought of 24 Sussex Drive as the crown jewel of the federal penitentiary system.

I was pregnant and nursing most of the years I was at 24 Sussex. I was ill-prepared and hardly even knew my husband, let alone how I was supposed to fit into this world that was very alien to me.

I prepared myself for my marriage to Pierre Trudeau, but I didn’t prepare myself for marriage to the prime minister.

If you rely completely on protocol, you can become a robot.

I strongly believe that privacy is one of the biggest luxuries one can have in life – to have your own private world and not be invaded by the outside.

I have had quite the grand, interesting life.

I don’t think Pierre Trudeau knew how to be a husband. I couldn’t stay in that marriage.

I tend to keep the press at a distance, you know, and I don’t really react to what they say. I react to what I feel more.

I was so surprised, astonished, when I lost my mind, because I didn’t think that I ever would. I assumed I would always be just fine.

Suddenly I turned 65 and realized, ‘Oh my goodness, I’m old.’ I think it was when I got into the movie theatres cheaper.

I have worked hard to become happy. It was a real struggle.

There’s nothing antifeminist about showing a lovely body; it’s part of the person you are.

I am not a weirdo, a wacko, or an eccentric for wanting to do good, honest work on a day-to-day basis.

I had no idea there was such a thin line between sanity and insanity. I got pushed right to the edge by tragedy in my life, and I couldn’t stand up; I couldn’t recover.

I have a bigger, peaceful view of life than aggressively breaking down other people.

You need community support. You’re pretty defeated when you’re laid low with a mental illness. It’s a frightening place to be, and to get up and be able to stand and to move forward and to start functioning again, you need so much support. You need to feel you’re not alone.

I think I devoted my life to Pierre Trudeau and our beautiful children.

I was a late bloomer on the career front.

For me, because I’m a mental health advocate, I want everyone to be the healthiest they can be.

Pierre was an extraordinary teacher – he really was one of the best, and he raised the boys so, so well: to have a global view, to have compassion, to be humanitarians, to really be concerned about alleviating suffering.

I live with being bipolar, but it doesn’t define me anymore.

I just want to find my individuality.

You can’t fix yourself out of a mental health issue. You can’t wake up and say, ‘Today I’m not being depressed!’ It’s a process to get well, but there is recovery.

I’m an old hippie who lives in the now. I seldom look forward, but we have to.

I have studied Freud and that kind of thing. I just never thought I would need it.

I tell the children I want everyone to love the life that they’re in, to be who they are… and make it the best life they can.

We don’t help people mourn in our society.

With my children, balance was everything: being not just a workaholic, not only studying but taking time to renew and restore yourself and taking time to pay attention to your brain health and not assume, as we all do, that our brains are perfect.

Depression is 80 per cent of my condition, and 10 per cent is mania, and 10 per cent is what we call normal. I say that must be when I am buying groceries. Or vacuuming.

I’ve had so many rich, rich, beautiful things happen to me in my life because I do have energy, and I do reach out, and I stretch my eyes.

My life has been extreme. Most people will not have the experience I’ve had. But the things that changed me, really changed me, they happen to everyone.

Every life is extraordinary.

When you’re mentally ill, sometimes you’re so self-involved that you forget how much you’re hurting all the people around you who love you so much, because you don’t understand that you’ve got to get help.

I don’t think I’m marriage material, to tell you the truth. I’d be a bad choice. But I’d be darling at being a girlfriend.

I turned 65 and thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m a senior. How did this happen?’

I can only ask people to be tolerant of the fact that the… pressures of wives of politicians is very, very strong.

I can’t be a rose in any man’s lapel.

The problem with mental illness, as opposed to physical illness, is that it involves wrong thinking or impaired insight. You’re not thinking correctly.

Simply put, women should prepare in their 50s for the rest of their lives.

Who am I – Canada’s Rodney Dangerfield? I get no respect.

When we have healthy children, we have a healthy community. They can learn. They can play. They can be part of the future. They can help you all do very well and prosper instead of suffering.

I’m no political pundit.

I miss being exposed to the leading thinkers of the world.

A truly empowered woman turns her values into verbs. She understands what she values most, and she takes steps to bring that value to life.

I don’t care about the respect of the press or the public or anybody. Whose respect every day I’m trying to garner is the respect of my children and my grandchildren and my friends, the people I work with.

Do you know what prepares you for the mental hospital? Being a prime minister’s wife.

The secret is to nip any mental disorder in the bud. As soon as you’re not feeling yourself, reach out and get some help because you can quickly get better. If you get stuck in it, it’s so hard to get out.

We can choose to wake up and grumble all day and be bitter and angry and judge others and find satisfaction in others doing bad instead of good. Or we can we wake up with optimism and love and say, ‘Just what is this beautiful day going to bring me?’

I was a bit of a mother hen at Studio 54.

I love the life I’ve had.

I’ve had such an exciting life.