Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes

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“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 would be curiosity.”

“I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do…”

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

“It's your life-but only if you make it so.”

“One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes.”

“A stumbling block to the pessimist is a stepping-stone to the optimist.”

“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.”

“Every time you meet a situation you think at the time it is an impossibility and you go through the tortures of the damned, once you have met it and lived through it, you find that forever after you are freer than you were before.”

“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 his own weight, this is a frightening prospect.”

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

“The Marines I have seen around the world have the cleanest bodies, the filthiest minds, the highest morale, and the lowest morals of any group of animals I have ever seen. Thank God for the United States Marine Corps!”

“Courage is exhilarating.”

“Lest I keep my complacent way I must remember somewhere out there a person died for me today. As long as there must be war, I ask and I must answer was I worth dying for?”

“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.”

“All of life is a constant education.”

“We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it as not as dreadful as it appears, discovering that we have the strength to stare it down.”

“Pit race against race, religion against religion, prejudice against prejudice. Divide and conquer! We must not let that happen here.”

“The giving of love is an education in itself.”

“You get more joy out of the giving to others, and should put a good deal of thought into the happiness you are able to give.”

“Today is the oldest you've ever been, and the youngest you'll ever be again.”

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

“I have never felt that anything really mattered but the satisfaction of knowing that you stood for the things in which you believed and had done the very best you could.”

“We have to face the fact that either all of us are going to die together or we are going to learn to live together and if we are to live together we have to talk.”

“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.”

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

“You should always own a black dress because no one ever remembers a black dress.”

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

“Character building begins in our infancy and continues until death.”

“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.”

“I could not at any age be content to take my place in a corner by the fireside and simply look on.”

“Be confident, not certain”

“If you can develop this ability to see what you look at, to understand its meaning, to readjust your knowledge to this new information, you can continue to learn and to grow as long as you live and you’ll have a wonderful time doing it.”

“Never be bored, and you will never be boring.”

“I am convinced that every effort must be made in childhood to teach the young to use their own minds. For one thing is sure: If they don't make up their minds, someone will do it for them.”

“He who learns but does not think is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.”

“I could never be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.”

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

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

“It is a brave thing to have courage to be an individual; it is also, perhaps, a lonely thing. But it is better than not being an individual, which is to be nobody at all.”

“There is nothing to fear except fear it's self.”

“If anyone were to ask me what I want out of life I would say- the opportunity for doing something useful, for in no other way, I am convinced, can true happiness be attained.”

“Understanding is a two-way street.”

“If man is to be liberated to enjoy more leisure, he must also be prepared to enjoy this leisure fully and creatively.”

“Every woman wants to be first to someone sometime in her life and that desire is the explanation for many strange things women do.”

“We have reached a point today where labor-saving devices are good only when they do not throw the worker out of his job.”

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

“To be mature you have to realize what you value most… Not to arrive at a clear understanding of one's own values is a tragic waste. You have missed the whole point of what life is for.”

“When you know to laugh and when to look upon things as too absurd to take seriously, the other person is ashamed to carry through even if he was serious about it.”

“To be a citizen in a democracy, a human being must be given a healthy start.”