Eleanor Roosevelt
» Admiration » “You always admire what you really don’t understand.”
» America » “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.”
» Belief » “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.”
» Books and Reading » “The reason that fiction is more interesting than any other form of literature, to those who really like to study people, is that in fiction the author can really tell the truth without humiliating himself.”
» Character » “It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.”
» Choice » “One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. 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.”
» Critics and Criticism » “Do what you feel in your heart to be right. You’ll be criticized anyway.”
» Curiosity » “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.”
» Decisions » “Somewhere along the line of development we discover what we really are, and then we make our real decision for which we are responsible. Make that decision primarily for yourself because you can never really live anyone else’s life, not even your own child’s.”
» Dreams » “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
» Effort » “You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with the best you have to give.”
» Failure » “All human beings have failings, all human beings have needs and temptations and stresses. Men and women who live together through long years get to know one another’s failings; but they also come to know what is worthy of respect and admiration in those they live with and in themselves. If at the end one can say, This man used to the limit the powers that God granted him; he was worthy of love and respect and of the sacrifices of many people, made in order that he might achieve what he deemed to be his task, then that life has been lived well and there are no regrets.”
» Fear » “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.”
» Fear » “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by each experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself,
