Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes

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.

To be a citizen in a democracy, a human being must be given a healthy start.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

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.

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

Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.

I could never be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.

What could we accomplish if we knew we could not fail?

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

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

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.

Work is always an antidote to depression.

When you know to laugh and when to look upon things as too absurd to take seriously, the other person is ashamed to carry through even if he was serious about it.

Never be bored, and you will never be boring.

Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.

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

The giving of love is an education in itself.

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face.

I think I have a good deal of my Uncle Theodore in me, because I could not, at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on.

Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively; unless you can choose a challenge instead of competence.

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.