Eleanor Roosevelt

There are no have-to’s, just choices.

There is nothing to fear except fear it’s self.

Happiness is not a goal…it’s a by-product of a life well lived.

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

Work is always an antidote to depression.

Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway.

He is great who confers the most benefits.

Genius at first is little more than a great capacity for receiving discipline.

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.

What we call education and culture is for the most part nothing but the substitution of reading for experience, of literature for life, of the obsolete fictitious for the contemporary real.

None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.

We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.

City life is millions of people being lonesome together.

One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.

The mob is man voluntarily descending to the nature of the beast. Its fit hour of activity is night. Its actions are insane like its whole constitution. It persecutes a principle; it would whip a right; it would tar and feather justice, by inflicting fire and outrage upon the houses and persons of those who have these. It resembles the prank of boys, who run with fire-engines to put out the ruddy aurora streaming to the stars.

We acquire the strength we have overcome.

You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.

Love truth, but pardon error.

Monarchies, aristocracies, and religions are all based upon that large defect in your race – the individual’s distrust of his neighbor, and his desire, for safety’s or comfort’s sake, to stand well in his neighbor’s eye. These institutions will always remain, and always flourish, and always oppress you, affront you, and degrade you, because you will always be and remain slaves of minorities. There was never a country where the majority of the people were in their secret hearts loyal to any of these institutions.

The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.

You who write, choose a subject suited to your abilities and think long and hard on what your powers are equal to and what they are unable to perform.