Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was a former American First Lady, diplomat, politician and activist, who is often regarded as one of the most influential first ladies in the history of the United States. She was married to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and remained as the First Lady of the country for 12 years, during which she emerged as a political leader in her own right. Roosevelt’s husband Franklin was often not able to make public appearances after having suffered from Polio but she made appearances in his place and became the second voice of the President. ‘First Lady of the World’ was what she was called by President Harry Truman. She had served in several roles in the United Nations, including the ‘1st Chair of the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women’ and ‘Representative to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights’, which made her an influential voice on a global platform. She was an activist as well as a feminist, at a time when it was something that was almost unheard of. Needless to say, Roosevelt was a woman who was way ahead of her time. Here are some of the most famous quotes and thoughts by Eleanor Roosevelt that will inspire and motivate you throughout your journey of life.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The only advantage of not being too good a housekeeper is that your guests are so pleased to feel how very much better they are.
Eleanor Roosevelt
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?
It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.
Eleanor Roosevelt
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.
Pit race against race, religion against religion, prejudice against prejudice. Divide and conquer! We must not let that happen here.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Don't call a woman a bitch. Call her an ass-hole. It still gets your point across and it's not sexist.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Today is the oldest you've ever been, and the youngest you'll ever be again.
Eleanor Roosevelt
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.
We have to face the fact that either all of us are going to die together or we are going to learn to live together, and if we are to live together we have to talk.
In all our contacts it is probably the sense of being really needed and wanted which gives us the greatest satisfaction and creates the most lasting bond.
Eleanor Roosevelt
I could not at any age be content to take my place in a corner by the fireside and simply look on.
I am convinced that every effort must be made in childhood to teach the young to use their own minds. For one thing is sure: If they don't make up their minds, someone will do it for them.
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.
Love can often be misguided and do as much harm as good, but respect can do only good. It assumes that the other person's stature is as large as one's own, his rights as reasonable, his needs as important.
It is a brave thing to have courage to be an individual; it is also, perhaps, a lonely thing. But it is better than not being an individual, which is to be nobody at all.
Eleanor Roosevelt
We have reached a point today where labor-saving devices are good only when they do not throw the worker out of his job.
If anyone were to ask me what I want out of life I would say- the opportunity for doing something useful, for in no other way, I am convinced, can true happiness be attained.
When you adopt the standards and the values of someone else … you surrender your own integrity. You become, to the extent of your surrender, less of a human being.
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.
To be mature you have to realize what you value most... Not to arrive at a clear understanding of one's own values is a tragic waste. You have missed the whole point of what life is for.
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.
