Last Updated November 5th 2017
Eleanor Roosevelt was an American politician, diplomat, and activist who was married to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. She was the niece of Theodore Roosevelt.
This controversial First Lady was known for her outspokenness, particularly her stance on racial issues.
During her husband’s presidency, Eleanor gave press conferences and wrote a newspaper column title My Day from 1935 to 1962.
She is also known for writing books about her own life and experiences, including “This Is My Story”, “This I Remember”, “On My Own” and “Autobiography”.
Verified Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes
Here are my selected verified Eleanor Roosevelt quotes taken from various books, her letters and her famous syndicated newspaper column, “My Day”.
“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. ” – Eleanor Roosevelt
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“There is no human being from whom we cannot learn something if we are interested enough to dig deep.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
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“A book is made to be read, not to be held.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
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“It’s your life-but only if you make it so.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
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“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
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“With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
(My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, January 8, 1936)
(This quote is also found in: My Day: The Best Of Eleanor Roosevelt’s Acclaimed Newspaper Columns, 1936-1962 by Eleanor Roosevelt, edited by David Emblidge, Hachette UK, 2009, 1936, Washington, January 8)
“There is no experience from which you can’t learn something.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
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(This quote is also found in: Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume 1: The Early Years, 1884-1933 by Blanche Wiesen Cook, Penguin, 1993, Introduction)
“We face the future fortified with the lessons we have learned from the past. It is today that we must create the world of the future.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
(Tomorrow Is Now by Eleanor Roosevelt, Harper & Row, 1963; p.xv)
“…The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
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“I think it is the effort of a person who feels superior to make someone else feel inferior. First though, you have to find someone who can be made to feel inferior.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
(Owosso Argus-Press, ‘So They Say!’, April 2, 1935, P. 4, Col. 4)
Note: This is the original quotation by Eleanor Roosevelt (image above). But it has been completely rephrased to this popularly used quote: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
“Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
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“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
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“There never has been security. No man has ever known what he would meet around the next corner; if life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
(Tomorrow Is Now by Eleanor, Harper & Row, 1963; p.80)
“One of the best ways of enslaving a people is to keep them from education and thus make it impossible for them to understand what is going on in the world as a whole.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
(My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, May 11, 1943)
(This quote is also found in: The Wisdom of Eleanor Roosevelt by Philosophical Library, edited by Donald Wigal, Open Road Media, 2010, 1940-1949, no. 114; p.1943)
“The world of the future is in our making. Tomorrow is now.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
(Tomorrow Is Now by Eleanor Roosevelt, Harper & Row, 1963; p.134)
“I have never felt that anything really mattered but the satisfaction of knowing that you stood for the things in which you believed and had done the very best you could.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
(My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, November 8, 1944)
“Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
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“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
“What counts, in the long run, is not what you read; it is what you sift through your own mind; it is the ideas and impressions that are aroused in you by your reading.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
(This quote is also found in: The Wisdom of Eleanor Roosevelt by Philosophical Library, edited by Donald Wigal, Open Road Media, 2010, 1960-1962, no. 340; p.1960)
“The most important thing in any relationship is not what you get but what you give.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
(The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt by Eleanor Roosevelt, Da Capo Press, 1992; p.xvi)
(This quote is also found in: This Is My Story by Eleanor Roosevelt, Harper & Brothers, 1937; p.361)
“Sometimes I wonder if we shall ever grow up in our politics and say definite things which mean something, or whether we shall always go on using generalities to which everyone can subscribe, and which mean very little.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
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“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“You will find that [as the First Lady] you are no longer clothing yourself, you are dressing a public monument.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“When you cease to make a contribution you begin to die.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
(Eleanor: The Years Alone by Joseph P. Lash, Konecky & Konecky, 1972; p.302)
“One thing life has taught me: if you are interested, you never have to look for new interests. They come to you.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
(This quote is also found in: The Wisdom of Eleanor Roosevelt by Philosophical Library, edited by Donald Wigal, Open Road Media, 2010, 1960-1962, no. 329; p.1960)
“Older people can look at the present with so much perspective if their lives have moved in interesting and wide spheres.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
(My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt; December 3, 1945)
“No one won the last war, and no one will win the next war.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
(Letter to Harry S. Truman, Mar. 22, 1948 from President’s Secretary’s File. Harry S. Truman Papers )
(The quote is also found in: by Roosevelt, Eleanor, edited by Steve Neal, Simon and Schuster, 2002, Four: 1948, March 22, 1948, P. 133)
“I’m so glad I never feel important, it does complicate life!” – Eleanor Roosevelt
(This quote is also found in: The Wisdom of Eleanor Roosevelt by Philosophical Library, edited by Donald Wigal, Open Road Media, 2010, 1940-1949, Letter To Anna, February 2. 1946; p.1946)
“This freedom of which men speak, for which they fight, seems to some people a perilous thing. It has to be earned at a bitter cost and then — it has to be lived with. For freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“We must know what we think and speak out, even at the risk of unpopularity.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
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“…All of life is a constant education.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
(My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt; December 22, 1945)
(This quote is also found in: The Wisdom of Eleanor Roosevelt by Philosophical Library, edited by Donald Wigal, Open Road Media, 2010, 1940-1949, no. 138; p.1946)
“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.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
(Eleanor and Harry: The Correspondence of Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman
by Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, edited by Steve Neal, Simon and Schuster, 2002, Six: 1950; p.174)
“A woman will always have to be better than a man in any job she undertakes.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
(My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt; November 29, 1945)
“…One should always sleep in all of one’s guests’ beds, to make sure that they are comfortable.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
(My Day by Eleanor; September 12, 1941)
“It is the ideas stirred in your own mind, the ideas which are a reflection of your own thinking, which make you an interesting person.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
(This quote is also found in: The Wisdom of Eleanor Roosevelt by Philosophical Library, edited by Donald Wigal, Open Road Media, 2010, 1960-1962, no. 340; p.1960)
“The object of all our education and all the development which is a part of education is to give every one of us an instrument which we can use to acquire information at any time we need it.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“…The most important ingredients in a child’s education are curiosity, interest, imagination, and a sense of the adventure of life. ” – Eleanor Roosevelt
(This quote is also found in: The Wisdom of Eleanor Roosevelt by Philosophical Library, edited by Donald Wigal, Open Road Media, 2010, 1960-1962, no. 303; p.1960)
“One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
Here is a short write up about Eleanor Roosevelt and books written by this First Lady plus written by others about her.
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