Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes (159 Quotes)


    Those of us who believe in the right of any human being to belong to whatever church he sees fit, and to worship God in his own way, cannot be accused of prejudice when we do not want to see public education connected with religious control of the sc

    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


    The kind of man who thinks that helping with the dishes is beneath him will also think that helping with the baby is beneath him, and then he certainly is not going to be a very successful father.

    I would not be happy unless I had some regular work to do every day and I imagine that I will always feel that way no matter how old I am.


    To some of us, hunger was more academic than real, but we must try to develop the ability to feel the urgency of such a situation.




    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.

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

    It is better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness.


    Every time you meet a situation, though you think at the moment 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.

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

    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.

    When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?


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

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

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

    It seems difficult to make humanity rise to certain heights except in crises.

    If we want a free and peaceful world, if we want to make the deserts bloom and man grow to greater dignity as a human being-we can do it.

    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.

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

    When life is too easy for us, we must beware or we may not be ready to meet the blows which sooner or later come to everyone, rich or poor.

    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.

    Anyone who knows history, particularly the history of Europe, will, I think, recognize that the domination of education or of government by any one particular religious faith is never a happy arrangement for the people.

    The war for freedom will never really be won because the price of freedom is constant vigilance over ourselves and over our Government.


    I used to tell my husband that, if he could make me 'understand' something, it would be clear to all the other people in the country.

    Sometimes I wonder if we shall ever grow up in our politics and say definite things which mean something, or whether we shall always go on using generalities to which everyone can subscribe, and which mean very little.

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

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

    I wonder if Communists occupied in producing plays are not safer than Communists starving to death. I have always felt that whatever your beliefs might be, if you could earn enough to keep body and soul together and had to be pretty busy doing that, you would not be very apt to have time to plot the overthrow of any existing government.


    Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable.

    We have all made such a fetish of financial success and forgotten frequently that success of any kind, when it does not include success in one's personal relationships, is bound in the end to leave both the man and the woman with very little real satisfaction.

    I believe we will have better government when men and women discuss public issues together and make their decisions on the basis of their differing areas of concern for the welfare of their families and their world. Too often the great decisions are

    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.

    After the discovery in 1918 of love letters revealing that Franklin was involved with Lucy Mercer The bottom dropped out of my own particular world, I faced myself, my surroundings, my world, honestly for the first time.

    Have convictions. Be friendly. Stick to your beliefs as they stick to theirs. Work as hard as they do.


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

    day out-of-doors, someone I loved to talk with, a good book and some simple food and music -- that would be rest.

    For instance, it is certain that women do not want a woman for President. Nor would they have the slightest confidence in her ability to fulfill the functions of that office.


    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.

    One of the blessings of age is to learn not to part on a note of sharpness, to treasure the moments spent with those we love, and to make them whenever possible good to remember, for time is short.

    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.


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    Eleanor Roosevelt - Rosalynn Carter - Michelle Obama - Mary Todd Lincoln - Martha Washington - Lady Bird Johnson - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis - Jackie Kennedy - Barbara Bush - Imelda Marcos


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