Quotes from Eleanor Roosevelt

To leave the world richer—that is the ultimate success.

I say to the young: Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively.

What counts, in the long run, is not what you read; it is what you sift through your own mind; it is the ideas and impressions that are aroused in you by your reading. It is the ideas stirred in your own mind, the ideas which are a reflection of your own thinking, which make you an interesting person.

no one can afford not to be a man. No position can compensate for coming face to face with a robot when you are alone.

Actually, when you come to understand self-discipline you begin to understand the limits of freedom. You grasp the fact that freedom is never absolute, that it must always be contained within the framework of other people's freedom.

Whatever period of life we are in is good only to the extent that we make use of it, that we live it to the hilt, that we continue to develop and understand what it has to offer us and what we have to offer it. The rewards for each age are different in kind, but they are not necessarily different in value or in satisfaction.

Perhaps the most essential thing for a continuing education is to develop the capacity to know what you see and to understand what it means. Many people seem to go through life without seeing.

We obtain our education at home, at school, and, most important, from life itself.

As a people, I am afraid, we tend too often to brush aside with impatience, sometimes with discourtesy, customs and points of view which are alien to us.

There is no human being from whom we cannot learn something if we are interested enough to dig deep.

It is often the people who refuse to assume any responsibility who are apt to be the sharpest critics of those who do.

With the new day comes new strength.

If we can keep that flexibility of mind, that hospitality toward new ideas, we will be able to welcome the new flow of thought from wherever it comes, not resisting it; weighing and evaluating and exploring the strange new concepts that confront us at every turn. We cannot shut the windows and pull down the shades; we cannot say, "I have learned all I need to know; my opinions are fixed on everything. I refuse to change or to consider these new things." Not today. Not any more.

I am opposed to 'right to work' legislation because it does nothing for working people, but instead gives employers the right to exploit labor.

Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent

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 to be what is generally called "a success.

We cannot shut the windows and pull down the shades; we cannot say, "I have learned all I need to know; my opinions are fixed on everything. I refuse to change or to consider these new things." Not today. Not any more.

What one has to do usually can be done.

If you will forget about yourself, whether or not you are making a good impression on people, what they think of you, and you will think about them instead, you won't be shy.

One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In stopping to think through the meaning of what I have learned, there is much that I believe intensely, much I am unsure of. 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.

There is nothing to regret - either for those who go or for those who are left behind

Every time you meet a crisis and live through it, you make it simpler for the next time.

Then come the hard choices: What do I believe? To what extent am I ready to live up to my beliefs? How far am I ready to support them? Are there times when I lack the courage to stand up and be counted because I fear loss of prestige or popularity, of alienating my neighbors, of hurting my business or professional standing?

I am not a gifted person. I had only three assets: I was keenly interested, I accepted every challenge and every opportunity to learn more, and I had great energy and discipline.