Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes

Eleanor Roosevelt was one of the most influential women of the 20th century. She was an author, diplomat, and activist who dedicated her life to helping others. Eleanor Roosevelt is best known for her quotes on courage, strength, and compassion. Her words are as relevant today, and they offer valuable insight into some of the most important aspects of life. Here are some of the best quotes from Eleanor Roosevelt that will inspire you to be your best self.

  • I do not think that I am a natural born mother… If I ever wanted to mother anyone, it was my father.

    Eleanor Roosevelt

  • I can not believe that war is the best solution. No one won the last war, and no one will win the next war.

    Eleanor Roosevelt

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

    Eleanor Roosevelt

  • A little simplification would be the first step toward rational living, I think.

    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

  • 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

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

    Eleanor Roosevelt

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

    Eleanor Roosevelt

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

    Eleanor Roosevelt

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

    Eleanor Roosevelt

  • 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.

    Eleanor Roosevelt

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

    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

  • 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.

    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

  • 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

  • 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.

    Eleanor Roosevelt

  • The mother of a family should look upon her housekeeping and the planning of meals as a scientific occupation.

    Eleanor Roosevelt

  • The battle for the individual rights of women is one of long standing and none of us should countenance anything which undermines it.

    Eleanor Roosevelt

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

    Eleanor Roosevelt

  • The giving of love is an education in itself.

    Eleanor Roosevelt

  • Understanding is a two-way street.

    Eleanor Roosevelt

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

    Eleanor Roosevelt

  • Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.

    Eleanor Roosevelt

  • Anyone who thinks must think of the next war as they would of suicide.

    Eleanor Roosevelt

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

    Eleanor Roosevelt

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

    Eleanor Roosevelt

  • Old age has deformities enough of its own. It should never add to them the deformity of vice.

    Eleanor Roosevelt

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

    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

  • 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

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

    Eleanor Roosevelt

  • What one has to do usually can be done.

    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

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

    Eleanor Roosevelt

  • The giving of love is an education in itself.

    Eleanor Roosevelt

  • Understanding is a two-way street.

    Eleanor Roosevelt

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

    Eleanor Roosevelt

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

    Eleanor Roosevelt

  • 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.

    Eleanor Roosevelt

  • Actors are one family over the entire world.

    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

  • 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

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

    Eleanor Roosevelt

  • Perhaps nature is our best assurance of immortality.

    Eleanor Roosevelt

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

    Eleanor Roosevelt

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

    Eleanor Roosevelt

  • 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.

    Eleanor Roosevelt

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

    Eleanor Roosevelt

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

    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

  • Actors are one family over the entire world.

    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

  • 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

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

    Eleanor Roosevelt

  • Perhaps nature is our best assurance of immortality.

    Eleanor Roosevelt

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

    Eleanor Roosevelt

  • Probably the happiest period in life most frequently is in middle age, when the eager passions of youth are cooled, and the infirmities of age not yet begun; as we see that the shadows, which are at morning and evening so large, almost entirely disappear at midday.

    Eleanor Roosevelt

  • You can’t move so fast that you try to change the mores faster than people can accept it. That doesn’t mean you do nothing, but it means that you do the things that need to be done according to priority.

    Eleanor Roosevelt

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

    Eleanor Roosevelt

  • It is not more vacation we need – it is more vocation.

    Eleanor Roosevelt

  • I have spent many years of my life in opposition, and I rather like the role.

    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

  • 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.

    Eleanor Roosevelt

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

    Eleanor Roosevelt

  • 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.

    Eleanor Roosevelt

  • I think I lived those years very impersonally. It was almost as though I had erected someone outside myself who was the president’s wife. I was lost somewhere deep down inside myself. That is the way I felt and worked until I left the White House.

    Eleanor Roosevelt

  • I’m so glad I never feel important, it does complicate 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 that you are able to give.

    Eleanor Roosevelt