“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.”
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Eleanor Roosevelt 148
American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady… 1884–1962Related quotes

All the righteous, all the saints, all the holy martyrs were happy.
Book II, ch. 4 (trans. Constance Garnett)
General, The Brothers Karamazov (1879–1880)

Book II, ch. 4 (trans. Constance Garnett)
The Brothers Karamazov (1879–1880)

I know what I have to do.
As quoted in Denise Worrell (1989), Icons: Intimate Portraits.

2005-09, Address at Stanford University (2005)
Context: When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Letter to Will Durant, 20 June, 1931
1930s

“I do not say what I do not mean. Neither can anyone force me to say what I don't wish to say.”
Source:Anson Chan to Newsweek magazine in 1997.