Inspiring Wisdom: A Collection of Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes

"Do one thing every day that scares you."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Happiness is not a goal...it's a by-product of a life well lived."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run it is easier. We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just one step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"The important thing is neither your nationality nor the religion you professed, but how your faith translated itself in your life."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and in all things, and who walks humbly and deals charitably with the circumstances of life, knowing that in this world no one is all knowing and therefore all of us need both love and charity."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"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.'"

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"The world of the future is in our making. Tomorrow is now."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"If silence seems to give approval, then remaining silent is cowardly."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"You can often change your circumstances by changing your attitude."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"The same god created all human beings and He certainly never intended that we should have less respect for any one of His creatures than for another."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Art is comfort for the disturbed and disturbing for the comfortable."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"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."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"I hope the women of the United States will awaken to the full sense of the influence which they can wield if they accept the responsibility which all power implies."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"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 have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"We all create the person we become by our choices as we go through life. In a real sense, by the time we are adults, we are the sum total of the choices we have made."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"True patriotism springs from a belief in the dignity of the individual, freedom and equality not only for Americans but for all people on earth, universal brotherhood and good will, and a constant striving toward the principles and ideals on which this country was founded."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run it is easier. We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"You must do the things you think you cannot do."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"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.'"

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"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."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"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."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"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."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Remember always that you have not only the right to be an individual; you have an obligation to be one. You cannot make any useful contribution in life unless you do this."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"What could we accomplish if we knew we could not fail?"

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively; unless you can choose a challenge instead of competence."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"You can often change your circumstances by changing your attitude"

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"I believe 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."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Since everybody is an individual, nobody can be you. You are unique. No one can tell you how to use your time. It is yours. Your life is your own. You mold it. You make it."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"I believe that democracy is based on the ability to make democracy serve the good of the majority of the people. If it can’t do that, then it should not survive."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Your ambition should be to get as much life out of living as you possibly can, as much enjoyment, as much interest, as much experience, as much understanding. Not simply be what is generally called a ‘success.'"

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"When you have decided what you believe, what you feel must be done, have the courage to stand alone and be counted."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Enjoy every minute you have with those you love, my dear, for no one can take joy that is past away from you. It will be there in your heart to live on when the dark days come."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Courage is exhilarating."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"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."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Nothing has ever been achieved by the person who says, 'It can’t be done.'"

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"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."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"There are no have-to’s, just choices."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"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."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"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."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong it is until it’s in hot water."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"All of life is a constant education."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"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."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Democracy requires both discipline and hard work. It is not easy for individuals to govern themselves. . . . It is one thing to gain freedom, but no one can give you the right to self-government. This you must earn for yourself by long discipline."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Today is the oldest you’ve ever been, and the youngest you’ll ever be again."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"The giving of love is an education in itself."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Do what you feel in your heart to be right—for you’ll be criticized anyway."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"One thing life has taught me: if you are interested, you never have to look for new interests. They come to you. When you are genuinely interested in one thing, it will always lead to something else."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Do the things that interest you and do them with all your heart. Don’t be concerned about whether people are watching you or criticizing you. The chances are that they aren’t paying attention to you."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"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."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Character building begins in our infancy and continues until death."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"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."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"What you don’t do can be a destructive force."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"I never waste time looking back."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"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."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Life is like a parachute jump, you’ve got to get it right the first time."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"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."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Understanding is a two-way street."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"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."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Think as little as possible about yourself. Think as much as possible about other people."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Friendship with one’s self is all-important because, without it, one can not be friends with anyone else in the world."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"It seems to me of great importance to teach children respect for life."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"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."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Never be bored, and you will never be boring."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"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."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt

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

- Eleanor Roosevelt