200+ Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes About Love, Life, Friendships, and Learning You'll Never Forget

Eleanor Roosevelt was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She served as the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four terms in office, making her the longest-serving first lady of the United States.

Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes

1. If someone betrays you once, it’s their fault; if they betray you twice, it’s your fault. - Eleanor Roosevelt
2. Do one thing every day that scares you. - Eleanor Rooseve
3. The only things one can admire at length are those one admires without knowing why. - Eleanor Roosevelt
4. To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart. - Eleanor Roosevelt
5. I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do. - Eleanor Roosevelt
6. 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. - Eleanor Roosevelt
7. Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life. - Eleanor Roosevelt
8. It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself. - Eleanor Roosevelt
9. You have to accept whatever comes, and the only important thing is that you meet it with the best you have to give. - Eleanor Roosevelt
10. 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. - Eleanor Roosevelt
11. You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do. - Eleanor Roosevelt
12. Friendship with oneself is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world. - Eleanor Roosevelt
13. Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.  - Eleanor Roosevelt
14. Work is always an antidote to depression. - Eleanor Roosevelt
15. 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. - Eleanor Roosevelt
16. Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.  - Eleanor Roosevelt
17. 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. - Eleanor Roosevelt
18. I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision. - Eleanor Roosevelt
19. No matter how plain a woman may be, if truth and honesty are written across her face, she will be beautiful. - Eleanor Roosevelt
20. People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built. - Eleanor Roosevelt
21. A stumbling block to the pessimist is a stepping-stone to the optimist. - Eleanor Roosevelt
22. Every time you meet a situation you think at the time it is an impossibility and you go through the tortures of the damned, once you have met it and lived through it, you find that forever after you are freer than you were before. - Eleanor Roosevelt
23. There is not human being from whom we cannot learn something if we are interested enough to dig deep. - Eleanor Roosevelt
24. 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
25. Today is the oldest you've ever been, and the youngest you'll ever be again. - Eleanor Roosevelt
26. 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. - Eleanor Roosevelt
27. As for accomplishments, I just did what I had to do as things came along. - Eleanor Roosevelt
28. 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. - Eleanor Roosevelt
29. Too often the great decisions are originated and given form in bodies made up wholly of men, or so completely dominated by them that whatever of special value women have to offer is shunted aside without expression. - Eleanor Roosevelt
30. It's your life-but only if you make it so. - Eleanor Roosevelt
31. 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. - Eleanor Roosevelt
32. A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong it is until it's in hot water. - Eleanor Roosevelt
33. Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual you have an obligation to be one. - Eleanor Roosevelt
34. Character building begins in our infancy and continues until death. - Eleanor Roosevelt
35. There are no have-to's, just choices - Eleanor Roosevelt
36. 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
37. You can't move so fast that you try to change the mores faster than people can accept it. That doesn't mean you do nothing, but it means that you do the things that need to be done according to priority. - Eleanor Roosevelt
38. He who learns but does not think is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger. - Eleanor Roosevelt
39. 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. - Eleanor Roosevelt
40. 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. - Eleanor Roosevelt
41. The giving of love is an education in itself. - Eleanor Roosevelt
42. What you don't do can be a destructive force. - Eleanor Roosevelt
43. 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
44. If man is to be liberated to enjoy more leisure, he must also be prepared to enjoy this leisure fully and creatively. - Eleanor Roosevelt
45. 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. - Eleanor Roosevelt
46. Have convictions. Be friendly. Stick to your beliefs as they stick to theirs. Work as hard as they do. - Eleanor Roosevelt
47. I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday. - Eleanor Roosevelt
48. It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness. - Eleanor Roosevelt
49. The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience. - Eleanor Roosevelt
50. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. - Eleanor Roosevelt
51. Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both. - Eleanor Roosevelt
52. I could not at any age be content to take my place in a corner by the fireside and simply look on. - Eleanor Roosevelt
53. It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan. - Eleanor Roosevelt
54. 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 should be curiosity. - Eleanor Roosevelt
55. Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness you are able to give. - Eleanor Roosevelt
56. Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable. - Eleanor Roosevelt
57. Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect. - Eleanor Roosevelt
58. I’m so glad I never feel important, it does complicate life! - Eleanor Roosevelt
59. When life is too easy for us, we must beware or we may not be ready to meet the blows which sooner or later come to everyone, rich or poor. - Eleanor Roosevelt
60. Hate and force cannot be in just a part of the world without having an effect on the rest of it. - Eleanor Roosevelt
61. If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor. - Eleanor Roosevelt
62. It is not more vacation we need – it is more vocation. - Eleanor Roosevelt
63. When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die. - Eleanor Roosevelt
64. My experience has been that work is almost the best way to pull oneself out of the depths. - Eleanor Roosevelt
65. There are practical little things in housekeeping which no man really understands. - Eleanor Roosevelt
66. "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
67. “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”
68. "Friendship with one’s self is all-important because, without it, one can not be friends with anyone else in the world."
69. "You must do the thing you think you cannot do."
70. "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."
71. "I believe 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."
72. "Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness you are able to give."
73. "You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do."
74. "The giving of love is an education in itself."
75. "Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn't have the power to say yes.”
76. “Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway.”
77. "You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face."
78. “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.”
79. “Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.”
80. “We are afraid to care too much, for fear that the other person does not care at all.”
81. “You can often change your circumstances by changing your attitude”
82. “With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.”
83. “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.”
84. “Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.”
85. “It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.”
86. “You have to accept whatever comes, and the only important thing is that you meet it with the best you have to give.”
87. "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."
88. “Think as little as possible about yourself. Think as much as possible about other people.”
89. “What could we accomplish if we knew we could not fail?”
90. “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.”
91. “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.”
92. “Do the things that interest you and do them with all your heart. Don’t be concerned about whether people are watching you or criticizing you. The chances are, are that they aren’t paying attention to you.”
93. “Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.”
94. “Since everybody is an individual, nobody can be you. You are unique. No one can tell you how to use your time. It is yours. Your life is your own. You mold it. You make it.”
95. “Character building begins in our infancy and continues until death.”
96. “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.”
97. "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.”
98. "Success must include two things: the development of an individual to his utmost potentiality and a contribution of some kind to one’s world."
99. “I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.”
100. “I never waste time looking back.”
101. “We all create the person we become by our choices as we go through life. In a real sense, by the time we are adults, we are the sum total of the choices we have made.”
102. “Your ambition should be to get as much life out of living as you possibly can, as much enjoyment, as much interest, as much experience, as much understanding. Not simply be what is generally called a ‘success.”
103. "When you have decided what you believe, what you feel must be done, have the courage to stand alone and be counted.”
104. “Life is like a parachute jump, you’ve got to get it right the first time.”
105. Every time you meet a situation you think at the time it is an impossibility and you go through the tortures of the damned, once you have met it and lived through it, you find that forever after you are freer than you were before.”
106. “Courage is exhilarating.”
107. “Before we can make friends with anyone else, we must first make friends with ourselves.”
108. “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.”
109. “All of life is a constant education.”
110. “It seems to me of great importance to teach children respect for life.”
111. “Today is the oldest you’ve ever been, and the youngest you’ll ever be again.”
112. "Enjoy every minute you have with those you love, my dear, for no one can take joy that is past away from you. It will be there in your heart to live on when the dark days come.”
113. “A stumbling block to the pessimist is a stepping-stone to the optimist.”
114. "One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes…and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.”
115. “If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.”
116. “My experience has been that work is almost the best way to pull oneself out of the depths.”
117. “It is not more vacation we need – it is more vocation.”
118. What you don’t do can be a destructive force.”
119. “Understanding is a two-way street.”
120. “It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.”
121. "The only things one can admire at length are those one admires without knowing why.”
122. “Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect.”
123. "People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously."
124. "Hate and force cannot be in just a part of the world without having an effect on the rest of it.”
125. "I could not at any age be content to take my place in a corner by the fireside and simply look on.”
126. “I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.”
127. “If someone betrays you once, it’s their fault; if they betray you twice, it’s your fault.”
128. “Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.”
129. "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."
130. "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.”
131. “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.”
132. “Nothing has ever been achieved by the person who says, ‘It can’t be done.'"
133. "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.”
134. “There are no have-to's, just choices.”
135. "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.”
136. “Never be bored, and you will never be boring.”
137. “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.”
138. “Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
139. “It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
140. “When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
141. “A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong it is until it’s in hot water.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
142. “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
143. “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
144. “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
145. “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’” – Eleanor Roosevelt
146. “With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
147. “My experience has been that work is almost the best way to pull oneself out of the depths.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
148. “A stumbling block to the pessimist is a stepping-stone to the optimist.”
149. “A good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader, a great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves.”
150. “Do the things that interest you and do them with all your heart. Don’t be concerned about whether people are watching you or criticizing you. The chances are that they aren’t paying attention to you.”
151. “I could not, at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived. Curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.”
152. “Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.”
153. “What could we accomplish if we knew we could not fail?”
154. “Probably the happiest period in life most frequently is in middle age, when the eager passions of youth are cooled, and the infirmities of age not yet begun.”
155. “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.”
156. “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.”
157. “It’s your life – but only if you make it so. The standards by which you live must be your own standards, your own values, your own convictions in regard to what is right and wrong, what is true and false, what is important and what is trivial. 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.”
158. “People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.”
159. “When life is too easy for us, we must beware or we may not be ready to meet the blows which sooner or later come to everyone, rich or poor.”
160. “Life is what you make it. Always has been, always will be.”
161. “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.”
162. “Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.”
163. “Your ambition should be to get as much life out of living as you possibly can, as much enjoyment, as much interest, as much experience, as much understanding. Not simply be what is generally called a ‘success.”
164. “Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.”
165. “Choose a challenge instead of competence.”
166. “All of life is a constant education.”
167. “Since everybody is an individual, nobody can be you. You are unique. No one can tell you how to use your time. It is yours. Your life is your own. You mold it. You make it.”
168. “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.”
169. “Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.”
170. “Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.”
171. “Probably the happiest period in life most frequently is in middle age, when the eager passions of youth are cooled, and the infirmities of age not yet begun; as we see that the shadows, which are at morning and evening so large, almost entirely disappear at midday.”
172. “Your life is your own. You mold it. You make it. All anyone can do is to point out ways and means which have been helpful to others. Perhaps they will serve as suggestions to stimulate your own thinking until you know what it is that will fulfill you, will help you to find out what you want to do with your life.”
173. “It seems to me of great importance to teach children respect for life.”
174. “If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.”
175. “You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.”
176. “Life is like a parachute jump, you’ve got to get it right the first time.”
177. “Life has got to be lived – that’s all there is to it. At seventy, I would say the advantage is that you take life more calmly. You know that ‘this, too, shall pass!”
178. “Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect.”
179. “Every time you meet a situation you think at the time it is an impossibility and you go through the tortures of the damned, once you have met it and lived through it, you find that forever after you are freer than you were before.”
180. “Do one thing every day that scares you.”
181. “It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.”
182. “We all create the person we become by our choices as we go through life. In a real sense, by the time we are adults, we are the sum total of the choices we have made.”
183. “I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do…”
184. “We are afraid to care too much, for fear that the other person does not care at all.”
185. “A great deal of fear is a result of just not knowing. We do not know what is involved in a new situation. We do not know whether we can deal with it. The sooner we learn what it entails, the sooner we can dissolve our fear.”
186. “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’”
187. “Courage is more exhilarating than fear, and in the long run, it is easier.”
188. “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.”
189. “The very next thing you need to be doing is the thing that terrifies you the most.”
190. “Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.”
191. “Before we can make friends with anyone else, we must first make friends with ourselves.”
192. “If you lose money you lose much, If you lose friends you lose more, If you lose faith you lose all.”
193. “Friendship with oneself is all-important because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.”
194. “Hate and force cannot be in just a part of the world without having an effect on the rest of it.”
195. “The Marines I have seen around the world have the cleanest bodies, the filthiest minds, the highest morale, and the lowest morals of any group of animals I have ever seen. Thank God for the United States Marine Corps!”
196. “A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and in all things, and who walks humbly and deals charitably with the circumstances of life, knowing that in this world no one is all knowing and therefore all of us need both love and charity.”
197. “Enjoy every minute you have with those you love, my dear, for no one can take joy that is past away from you. It will be there in your heart to live on when the dark days come.”
198. “The giving of love is an education in itself.”
199. “The basis of world peace is the teaching which runs through almost all the great religions of the world. Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
200. “Someone once asked me what I regarded as the three most important requirements for happiness. My answer was: A feeling that you have been honest with yourself and those around you; a feeling that you have done the best you could both in your personal life and in your work; and the ability to love others.”
201. “The battle for the individual rights of women is one of long standing and none of us should countenance anything which undermines it.”
202. “No matter how plain a woman may be, if truth and honesty are written across her face, she will be beautiful.”
203. “Campaign behavior for wives: Always be on time. Do as little talking as humanly possible. Lean back in the parade car so everybody can see the president.”
204. “Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.”
205. “Courage is exhilarating.”
206. “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.”
207. “One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes… and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.”
208. “Have convictions. Be friendly. Stick to your beliefs as they stick to theirs. Work as hard as they do.”
209. “Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn’t have the power to say yes.”
210. “The only things one can admire at length are those one admires without knowing why.”
211. “I never waste time looking back.”
212. “If someone betrays you once, it’s their fault; if they betray you twice, it’s your fault.”
213. “Understanding is a two-way street.”
214. “It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.”
215. “Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable.”
216. “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.”
217. “When you have decided what you believe, what you feel must be done, have the courage to stand alone and be counted.”
218. “It is not more vacation we need – it is more vocation.”
219. “What you don’t do can be a destructive force.”
220. “Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.”
221. “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.”
222. “Success must include two things: the development of an individual to his utmost potentiality and a contribution of some kind to one’s world.”
223. “The future is literally in our hands to mold as we like. But we cannot wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow is now.”
224. “Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness you are able to give.”
225. “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.”
226. “Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.”
227. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
228. “Work is always an antidote to depression.”
229. “I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.”
230. “You can often change your circumstances by changing your attitude.”
231. “There are practical little things in housekeeping which no man really understands.”
232. “Today is the oldest you’ve ever been, and the youngest you’ll ever be again.”
233. “Think as little as possible about yourself and as much as possible about other people.”
234. “You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.”
235. “Nothing has ever been achieved by the person who says, ‘It can’t be done.”
236. “Anger is one letter short of danger.”
237. “To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.”
238. “No man is defeated without until he has first been defeated within.”
239. “Strength that goes wrong is even more dangerous than weakness that goes wrong.”
240. “Character building begins in our infancy and continues until death.”
241. “The mind must be trained, rather than the memory.”
242. “What one has to do usually can be done.”
243. “I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.”
244. “Only a man’s character is the real criterion of worth.”