Eleanor Roosevelt

Life is like a parachute jump; you’ve got to get it right the first time.

We all create the person we become by our choices as we go through life. In a very real sense, by the time we are adults, we are the sum total of the choices we have made.

The hard part of loving is that one has to learn so often to let go of those we love, so they can do things, so they can grow, so they can return to us with an even richer, deeper love.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. The danger lies in refusing to face the fear, in not daring to come to grips with it.

Usefulness, whatever form it may take, is the price we should pay for the air we breathe and the food we eat and the privilege of being alive.

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look at 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 think you think you cannot do.

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.’

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face... do the thing you cannot do.

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 a competence.

I have no illusions that anyone can change the world in a short time... Yet I do believe that even a few people, who want to understand, to help and to do the right thing for great numbers of people instead of for the few can help.’

No one can make you feel inferior without your permission.

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.

A stumbling block to the pessimist is a stepping-stone to the optimist.

Somewhere along the line of development we discover what we really are and then make our real decision for which we are responsible. Make that decision primarily for yourself because you can never really live anyone else's lie, not even your child's. The influence you exert is through your own life and what you become yourself.

No one can make you feel inferior without your permission.

I learned then that practically no one in the world is entirely bad or entirely good, and that motives are often more important than actions.

We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time.

What matters now, as always, is not what we can’t do: it is what we can and must do.

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

Success must include two things: the development of an individual to his utmost potentiality and a contribution of some kind to one’s world.

Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which your really stop to look fear in the face.

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

Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.

Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility.

Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run it is easier. We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a 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.

Remember 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.