Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes

I think it is impossible for one human being really to know another without first knowing and being at peace with himself.

I never thought of achievement. I just did what came along for me to do - the thing that gave me the most pleasure.

Nobody else is going to do the things which are yours to be done in the world.

It is a curious thing in human experience, but to live through a period of stress and sorrow with another person, creates a bond which nothing seems able to break.

Women are like teabags. We don't know our true strength until we are in hot water!

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

I think if the people of this country can be reached with the truth, their judgment will be in favor of the many, as against the privileged few

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

Sailors have the cleanest bodies and the filthiest minds.

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

Life is what you make it. Always has been, always will be.

We don't become heroes overnight." - One step at a time, eventually discovering we have the strength to stare it down.

what we need in the world is manners ... I think that if, instead of preaching brotherly love, we preached good manners, we might get a little further. It sounds less righteous and more practical.

I believe that all that we go through here must have some value.

The only joy in this hard life is serving others.

Each time you learn something new you must readjust the whole framework of your knowledge

Whatever come we have to meet it.

Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home.

What counts, in the long run, is not what you read; it is what you sift through your own mind; it is the ideas and impressions that are aroused in you by your reading. It is the ideas stirred in your own mind, the ideas which are a reflection of your own thinking, which make you an interesting person

I kept praying that I might be able to prevent a repetition of this stupidity called war. I have tried to keep the promise I made to myself, but the progress that the world is making toward peace seems like the crawling of a little child, very halting and slow.

The very next thing you need to be doing is the thing that terrifies you the most.

We must do what we think we can't do.

If we fail to meet our problems here, no one else in the world will do so. If we fail, the heart goes out of progressives throughout the world.

Surely, in the light of history, it is more intelligent to hope rather than to fear, to try rather than not to try. For one thing we know beyond all doubt: nothing has ever been achieved by the person who says: it can't be done.

You can't move so fast that you try to change the mores faster than people can accept it.

Most of the work that's done in the world gets done by people who weren't feeling all that well at the time that they did it.

You get strength and courage, when you stop to look fear in the face.

All human beings have failings, all human beings have needs and temptations and stresses. Men and women who live together through long years get to know one another's failings; but they also come to know what is worthy of respect and admiration in those they live with and in themselves. If at the end one can say, This man used to the limit the powers that God granted him; he was worthy of love and respect and of the sacrifices of many people, made in order that he might achieve what he deemed to be his task, then that life has been lived well and there are no regrets.

No one can move without some leadership.

If someone betrays you once, it’s their fault; if they betray you twice, it’s your fault.

the greatest luxury I know is sitting up reading in bed.

You need not be proud of me.... I'm only being active till you can be again--it isn't such a great desire on my part to serve theworld and I'll fall back into habits of sloth quite easily!

I know that given great responsibility men sometimes change, but Mr. Nixon's Presidency would worry me.

Success must include two things: the development of an individual to his utmost potentiality and a contribution of some kind to one's world.

...without equality there can be no democracy.

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.

In our country we must trust the people to hear and see both the good and the bad and to choose the good.

You always admire what you really don't understand. - Eleanor Roosevelt

So I took an interest in politics, but I don't know whether I enjoyed it! It was a wife's duty to be interested in whatever interested her husband, whether it was politics, books, or a particular dish for dinner.

No one from the beginning of time has had security.

If you approach each new person you meet in a spirit of adventure, you will find yourself endlessly fascinated by the new channels of thought and experience and personality that you encounter.

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

Anger is one letter short of danger.

You seem to think that everyone can save money if they have the character to do it. As a matter of fact, there are innumerable people who have a wide choice between saving and giving their children the best possible opportunities. The decision is usually in favor of the children.

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.

I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do.

You never know anyone until you marry them.

True hospitality consists of giving the best of yourself to your guests.

Will people ever be wise enough to refuse to follow bad leaders or to take away the freedom of other people?

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.

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

America is all about speed. Hot, nasty, bad-ass speed.

A trait no other nation seems to possess in quite the same degree as we do namely, a feeling of almost childish injury and resentment unless the world as a whole recognizes how innocent we are of anything but the most generous and harmless intentions

There are no have-to's, just choices

Before we can make friends with anyone else, we must first make friends with ourselves.

The purpose of life afterall is to live it.

You do the things that need to be done according to priority.

One of the best ways of enslaving a people is to keep them from education.

If you must compromise, compromise up.

What I have learned from my own experience is that the most important ingredients in a child's education are curiosity, interest, imagination, and a sense of the adventure of life.