Quotes from Eleanor Roosevelt

A trait no other nation seems to possess in quite the same degree that we do -- namely, a feeling of almost childish injury and resentment unless the world as a whole recognizes how innocent we are of anything but the most generous and harmless intentions.

No man is defeated without until he is defeated within.

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.... You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience by 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.

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

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 would be curiosity.

Work is always an antidote to depression.

One thing life has taught me: if you are interested, you never have to look for new interests. They come to you. When you are genuinely interested in one thing, it will always lead to something else.

I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do ...

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.

People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.

Light a candle instead of cursing the darkness.

It's your life-but only if you make it so.

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

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.

The Marines I have seen around the world have the cleanest bodies, the filthiest minds, the highest morale, and the lowest morals of any group of animals I have ever seen. Thank God for the United States Marine Corps!

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.

Every time you meet a situation you think at the time 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.

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

Pit race against race, religion against religion, prejudice against prejudice. Divide and conquer! We must not let that happen here.

Today is the oldest you've ever been, and the youngest you'll ever be again.

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

Courage is exhilarating.

Lest I keep my complacent way I must remember somewhere out there a person died for me today. As long as there must be war, I ask and I must answer was I worth dying for?