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50 Quotes From Inspirational First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt

She may have been the wife of former U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt, but Eleanor Roosevelt did great things in her own right. Known as the “First Lady of the World” for her commitment to human rights, she also used her voice to speak about race issues. Having lost both her parents at a young age and one of her brothers, she was well acquainted with the darker side of life. And yet, as these quotes will convince you, she has been a source of inspiration for many.
With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.
Eleanor Roosevelt

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 lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’
Eleanor Roosevelt

eleanor-roosevelt-a-woman-is-like

A woman is like a tea bag – you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.
Eleanor Roosevelt

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Eleanor Roosevelt

You must do the things you think you cannot do.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.
Eleanor Roosevelt

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.
Eleanor Roosevelt

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.
Eleanor Roosevelt

I once 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.
Eleanor Roosevelt

People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.
Eleanor Roosevelt

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

The giving of love is an education in itself.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Friendship with ones self is all important, because without it one can not be friends with anyone else in the world.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Have convictions. Be friendly. Stick to your beliefs as they stick to theirs. Work as hard as they do.
Eleanor Roosevelt

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

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.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for any reason, turn his back of life.
Eleanor Roosevelt

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

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

You can often change your circumstances by changing your attitude.
Eleanor Roosevelt

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Do one thing every day that scares you.
Eleanor Roosevelt

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

It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know. We all know people who are so much afraid of pain that they shut themselves up like clams in a shell and, giving out nothing, receive nothing and therefore shrink until life is a mere living death.
Eleanor Roosevelt

eleanor-roosevelt-many-people-will-walk

Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.
Eleanor Roosevelt

No matter how plain a woman may be, if truth and honesty are written across her face, she will be beautiful.
Eleanor Roosevelt

We are afraid to care too much, for fear that the other person does not care at all.
Eleanor Roosevelt

To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.
Eleanor Roosevelt

If someone betrays you once, it’s their fault; if they betray you twice, it’s your fault.
Eleanor Roosevelt

I could not at any age be content to take my place in a corner by the fireside and simply look on.
Eleanor Roosevelt

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

It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.
Eleanor Roosevelt

eleanor-roosevelt-one-thing-life-has

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

Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run it is easier. We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just one step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Surely, in the light of history, it is more intelligent to hope rather than to fear, to try rather than not to try. For one thing we know beyond all doubt: Nothing has ever been achieved by the person who says, ‘It can’t be done.
Eleanor Roosevelt

The world of the future is in our making. Tomorrow is now.
Eleanor Roosevelt

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

The important thing is neither your nationality nor the religion you professed, but how your faith translated itself in your life.
Eleanor Roosevelt

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

Pit race against race, religion against religion, prejudice against prejudice. Divide and conquer! We must not let that happen here.
Eleanor Roosevelt

If human beings can be trained for cruelty and greed and a belief in power which comes through hate and fear and force, certainly we can train equally well for greatness and mercy and the power of love which comes because of the strength of the good qualities to be found in the soul of every human being.
Eleanor Roosevelt

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.
Eleanor Roosevelt

True patriotism springs from a belief in the dignity of the individual, freedom and equality not only for Americans but for all people on earth, universal brotherhood and good will, and a constant and earnest striving toward the principles and ideals on which this country was founded.
Eleanor Roosevelt

eleanor-roosevelt-when-you-have-decided

When you have decided what you believe, what you feel must be done, have the courage to stand alone and be counted.
Eleanor Roosevelt

A good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader,
a great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Poor minds talk about people average minds talk about events great minds talk about ideas.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.
Eleanor Roosevelt

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