Eleanor Roosevelt

I have never felt that anything really mattered but knowing that you stood for the things in which you believed and had done the very best you could.

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.

Once I had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: No good in a bed, but fine up against a wall.

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.

Women are like tea bags. You never know how strong they are until they are in hot water.

We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it as not as dreadful as it appears, discovering that we have the strength to stare it down.

Our own life has to be our message.

Accept your genius and say what you think.

Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.

The worst of charity is that the lives you are asked to preserve are not worth preserving.

The really efficient laborer will be found not to crowd his day with work, but will saunter to his task surrounded by a wide halo of ease and leisure.

Behave so the aroma of your actions may enhance the general sweetness of the atmosphere.

Short words are the best and old words when short are best of all.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

No facts are to me sacred; none are profane; I simply experiment, an endless seeker, with no past at my back.

Plan backwards as well as forward. Set objectives and trace back to see how to achieve them. You may find that no path can get you there. Plan forward to see where your steps will take you, which may not be clear or intuitive.

Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it. The man who knows how will always have a job. The man who also knows why will always be his boss.

We are symbols, and inhabit symbols.

Shallow people believe in luck and in circumstances; Strong people believe in cause and effect.

Associate reverently, as much as you can, with your loftiest thoughts.

Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.