Imelda Marcos

"Seit bekannt wurde, dass meine Schuhe konfisziert wurden, bekomme ich von allen möglichen Leuten Schuhe geschenkt."

"I'm like Robin Hood. I rob the rich to make these projects come alive... not really rob. It's done with a smile."

"The Philippines is in a strategic position. It is both East and West, right and left, rich and poor. We are neither here nor there."

"The Philippines is where Asia wears a smile. Beautiful products can only be made by happy people."

"If you know how rich you are, you are not rich. But me, I am not aware of the extent of my wealth. That's how rich we are."

"Diligence, hard work, foresight, entrepreneurship and God's blessing."

"When they see me holding fish, they can see that I am comfortable with kings as well as with paupers."

"President Marcos was investing in precious metals long before he entered politics."

"Funny, I never shopped. Even my jewelry — not a piece of my jewelry I bought for me."

"I was born ostentatious. They will list my name in the dictionary someday. They will use 'Imeldific' to mean ostentatious extravagance."

"Ferdinand had foresight and unbelievable luck. His success actually bordered on fiction."

"I have never been a material girl. My father always told me never to love anything that cannot love you back."

"I will not say sorry and be pardoned for doing a godly act."

"My grandchildren are growing up and they could not understand why the Marcoses are still being crucified although we keep on telling them that we did not steal from the Filipino people."

"I would have to ask the public to choose between a culture of hate or a culture of love. I am sure our poor will pick the latter. With the Marcos assets, we could regain this value of sharing love with one another."

"They went into my closets looking for skeletons, but thank God, all they found were shoes, beautiful shoes."

"Filipinos don't wallow in what is miserable and ugly. They recycle the bad into things of beauty."

"It so coincided that Marcos had money. After the Bretton Woods agreement he started buying gold from Fort Knox. Three thousand tons, then 4,000 tons. I have documents for these: 7,000 tons. Marcos was so smart. He had it all. It's funny; America didn't understand him."

"When you reach a certain level of leadership, people cannot be neutral with you. They either love, love, love you, or hate, hate, hate you."

"We never had such a violation of human rights. In fact, we have had no human rights case here in the Philippines, even to this day."

"It is not expensive to be beautiful. It takes only a little effort to be presentable and beautiful. But it takes some effort. And unfortunately people think of beauty as luxury, beauty as frivolity, ... or extravagance. Beauty is a discipline, beauty is art, is harmony, in the ideological sense and in the theological sense, beauty is God and love made real. And the ultimate reach in this world is beauty."

"I seem to be able to only see the positive things in life and the beautiful things in life and when I see, for instance, garbage or ugliness, then I turn my back or I seem to be able to skip it."

"I am my little people's star and slave. When I go out into the barrios, I get dressed because I know my little people want to see a star. Other presidents' wives have gone to the barrios wearing housedresses and slippers. That's not what people want to see. People want someone they can love, someone to set an example."

"’Who is Imelda?’ I come from a third world country, third class province. And I was orphaned—and look, Imelda made it. If Imelda made it everyone can make it. At this age and stage I feel so good I’m still ready to fly.”"

"Thank God I never lost that childlike innocence and the purity of vision and naivete. …That childlike innocence was most useful, because if I was a bit wiser, I wouldn't have been able to do anything, perhaps. So I'm glad I was not smart."

"I've always maintained that the only things to uphold are the good, the true and the beautiful. We have to reject what's ugly."

"The best compliment I ever got in my life came from Chairman Mao of China. When I went there, at a time when nobody wanted to touch China with a 10-foot pole, Mao told me that I'm beautiful because I'm a natural, and he said natural is perfection. So, no character assassination can diminish me and my perfection."

"I'm the Imelda Marcos of sunglasses."

"A cunning child with a remarkable gift for both self-delusion and self-preservation. Marcos, who turned 75 last week, always maintained her childlike sense of entitlement, despite the harsh realities of life."

"She spent money. No question about that...She is a world-class spender. She is a world-class shopper."