Quotes By Eleanor Roosevelt

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

I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall.

Understanding is a two-way street.

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.

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

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.

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

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

I'm so glad I never feel important, it does complicate life!

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

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

If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.

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

Autobiographies are only useful as the lives you read about and analyze may suggest to you something that you may find useful in your own journey through life.

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

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.

You must do the things you think you cannot do.

Too often the great decisions are originated and given form in bodies made up wholly of men, or so completely dominated by them that whatever of special value women have to offer is shunted aside without expression.

The giving of love is an education in itself.

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.

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

There are practical little things in housekeeping which no man really understands.

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.'

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

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

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

The Bible illustrated by Dore occupied many of my hours - and I think probably gave me many nightmares.

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.

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.

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