Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes

There are no have-to's, just choices

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift that's why we call it the present.

One should always sleep in all of one's guest beds, to make sure that they are comfortable. (11 September 1941)

The danger lies in the possibility that we will not accept the person as he is but try to make him over according to our own ideas.

Nearly every one of us, at some time or other, thinks what a great waste and pity it is that the older generation cannot teach the younger generation, cannot share their experiences, cannot save the young their mistakes; that each human being has to learn by his own experience and his own mistakes. And yet it is possible that this is the best way.

If man is to be liberated to enjoy more leisure, he must also be prepared to enjoy this leisure fully and creatively. For people to have more time to read, to take part in their civic obligations, to know more about how their government functions and who their officials are might mean in a democracy a great improvement in the democratic processes. Let's begin, then, to think how we can prepare old and young for these new opportunities. Let's not wait until they come upon us suddenly and we have a crisis that we will be ill prepared to meet. (5 November 1958)

Anxiety,” Kierkegaard said, “is the dizziness of freedom.

No One
Has The Right
To Make You Feel Inferior
Without Your Consent

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 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.

Has any man ever attained to inner harmony by pondering the experience of others? Not since the world began! He must pass through the fire.

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

Every woman wants to be first to someone sometime in her life and that desire is the explanation for many strange things women do.

In this world, no one is all knowing, and therefore, all of us need both love and charity.

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 any attention to you. It's your attention to yourself that is so stultifying. But you have to disregard yourself as completely as possible. If you fail the first time then you'll just have to try harder the second time. After all, there's no real reason why you should fail. Just stop thinking about yourself.

I know that we will be the sufferers if we let great wrongs occur without exerting ourselves to correct them.