"You can love your people fiercely and still keep learning how to love them better"
About this Quote
The intent is pragmatic and culturally legible: a permission slip for people who feel loyalty in their bones but suspect that loyalty can calcify into defensiveness. "Your people" is strategically broad. It can mean family, hometown, faith community, political tribe, even a nation. That vagueness is the point; it invites readers to project their own affiliations, then confront the uncomfortable possibility that affection doesnt automatically produce wisdom.
The subtext is about power and perspective. Coming from a Bush, the phrase carries an echo of American civic family drama: loving a country, an institution, a legacy, while recognizing that love can be incomplete, naive, or self-serving. "Learning how to love them better" smuggles in accountability without the punitive tone of cancellation or confession. It suggests listening, updating your priors, and letting new information change your behavior, not just your opinions.
It works because it recodes growth as loyalty rather than betrayal. In a moment when "I love my people" is often deployed as a shield against critique, Hager offers a softer, sharper alternative: real allegiance is iterative.
Quote Details
| Topic | Love |
|---|---|
| Source | Sisters First: Stories from Our Wild and Wonderful Life (2017) by Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Pierce Bush |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Hager, Jenna Bush. (2026, January 26). You can love your people fiercely and still keep learning how to love them better. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/you-can-love-your-people-fiercely-and-still-keep-184584/
Chicago Style
Hager, Jenna Bush. "You can love your people fiercely and still keep learning how to love them better." FixQuotes. January 26, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/you-can-love-your-people-fiercely-and-still-keep-184584/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"You can love your people fiercely and still keep learning how to love them better." FixQuotes, 26 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/you-can-love-your-people-fiercely-and-still-keep-184584/. Accessed 5 Feb. 2026.











