Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes

Sometimes I wonder if we shall ever grow up in our politics and say definite things which mean something, or whether we shall always go on using generalities to which everyone can subscribe, and which mean very little.

The battle for the individual rights of women is one of long standing and none of us should countenance anything which undermines it.

There are practical little things in housekeeping which no man really understands.

In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.

I'm so glad I never feel important, it does complicate life!

Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable.

I do not think that I am a natural born mother... If I ever wanted to mother anyone, it was my father.

Do what you feel in your heart to be right- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

Anyone who knows history, particularly the history of Europe, will, I think, recognize that the domination of education or of government by any one particular religious faith is never a happy arrangement for the people.

Friendship with ones self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.

I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall.

You must do the things you think you cannot do.

My experience has been that work is almost the best way to pull oneself out of the depths.

What you don't do can be a destructive force.

Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn't have the power to say yes.

If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.

Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.

The giving of love is an education in itself.

We are afraid to care too much, for fear that the other person does not care at all.

I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.

Hate and force cannot be in just a part of the world without having an effect on the rest of it.

The Bible illustrated by Dore occupied many of my hours - and I think probably gave me many nightmares.

Understanding is a two-way street.

The mother of a family should look upon her housekeeping and the planning of meals as a scientific occupation.

Anyone who thinks must think of the next war as they would of suicide.

When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.

A little simplification would be the first step toward rational living, I think.

When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?

You can't move so fast that you try to change the mores faster than people can accept it. That doesn't mean you do nothing, but it means that you do the things that need to be done according to priority.

I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do, provided he keeps doing them until he gets a record of successful experience behind him.

I can not believe that war is the best solution. No one won the last war, and no one will win the next war.

You can never really live anyone else's life, not even your child's. The influence you exert is through your own life, and what you've become yourself.

Too often the great decisions are originated and given form in bodies made up wholly of men, or so completely dominated by them that whatever of special value women have to offer is shunted aside without expression.

Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry is own weight, this is a frightening prospect.

Campaign behavior for wives: Always be on time. Do as little talking as humanly possible. Lean back in the parade car so everybody can see the president.

It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.

Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.

I have spent many years of my life in opposition, and I rather like the role.

The only advantage of not being too good a housekeeper is that your guests are so pleased to feel how very much better they are.

Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.

Perhaps nature is our best assurance of immortality.

It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.

You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.

It is not more vacation we need - it is more vocation.

Old age has deformities enough of its own. It should never add to them the deformity of vice.

In all our contacts it is probably the sense of being really needed and wanted which gives us the greatest satisfaction and creates the most lasting bond.

When life is too easy for us, we must beware or we may not be ready to meet the blows which sooner or later come to everyone, rich or poor.

Autobiographies are only useful as the lives you read about and analyze may suggest to you something that you may find useful in your own journey through life.

Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.

Probably the happiest period in life most frequently is in middle age, when the eager passions of youth are cooled, and the infirmities of age not yet begun; as we see that the shadows, which are at morning and evening so large, almost entirely disappear at midday.

I think I lived those years very impersonally. It was almost as though I had erected someone outside myself who was the president's wife. I was lost somewhere deep down inside myself. That is the way I felt and worked until I left the White House.

I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.

Have convictions. Be friendly. Stick to your beliefs as they stick to theirs. Work as hard as they do.

I used to tell my husband that, if he could make me 'understand' something, it would be clear to all the other people in the country.

The only things one can admire at length are those one admires without knowing why.

What one has to do usually can be done.

As for accomplishments, I just did what I had to do as things came along.

With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.

One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes... and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.

Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.

A woman is like a tea bag - you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.

Only a man's character is the real criterion of worth.

Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.

It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.