Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes

“Up to a certain point it is good for us to know that there are people in the world who will give us love and unquestioned loyalty to the limit of their ability. I doubt, however, if it is good for us to feel assured of this without the accompanying obligation of having to justify this devotion by our behavior.”

“Do one thing every day that scares you.”

“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.”

“Perhaps the basic thing which contributes to charm is the ability to forget oneself and be engrossed in other people.”

“No human being can ever 'own' another, whether in friendship, love, marriage, or parenthood.”

“Nothing we learn in this world is ever wasted.”

“It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know. We all know people who are so much afraid of pain that they shut themselves up like clams in a shell and, giving out nothing, receive nothing and therefore shrink until life is a mere living death.”

“I feel quite sure that the American people, if they have knowledge and leadership, can meet any crisis just as well as they met it over and over again in the past.”

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

“Philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes.”

“No writing has any real value which is not the expression of genuine thought and feeling.”

“When all is said and done, and statesmen discuss the future of the world, the fact remains that people fight these wars.”

“Franklin [D. Roosevelt] had a good way of simplifying things. He made people feel that he had a real understanding of things and they felt they had about the same understanding.”

“A candle can bring light to a dungeon but it can also be used to light a deadly marijuana cigarette.”

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

“The basis of all good human behavior is kindness.”

“Every woman in public life needs to develop skin as tough as rhinoceros hide.”

“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.”

“I have often felt that I cheated my children a little. I was never so totally theirs as most mothers are. I gave to audiences whatbelonged to my children, got back from audiences the love my children longed to give me.”

“The morality of a [political] party must grow out of the conscience and the participation of the voters.”

“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.”

“You never have a normal family relationship in the White House; it's an impossible thing to have. You live in a goldfish bubble, and you snatch what you can for a personal life, but you never have a normal, natural existence.”

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

“Unused ability, like unused muscles, will atrophy.”

“One of the best ways of enslaving a people is to keep them from education... The second way of enslaving a people is to suppress the sources of information, not only by burning books but by controlling all the other ways in which ideas are transmitted.”