ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

What other single human being has touched and transformed the existence of so many? She walked in the slums and ghettos of the world, not on a tour of inspection, but as one who could not feel contentment when others were hungry

Eleanor Roosevelt’s maiden name was Roosevelt. She didn’t have to change her name when she married Franklin.

… the most influential woman of her time

She was a genius at listening.

I did not have Eleanor Roosevelt’s courage, her energy, her determination … Mrs. Roosevelt just didn’t pay attention to all the snide things that were said about her. I respect that but I could not be like that.

Queen of the Great Democracy

I’m not going to go down in coal mines like Mrs. Roosevelt.

In this great auditorium under the sky all of us are free. When God gave us this wonderful outdoors …, He made no distinction of race, or creed, or color.

If Eleanor Roosevelt has her way, how are we going to tell the rich from the poor?

Mrs. Roosevelt has gone so far in aiding the campaign for complete social equality that she has, in effect, endorsed intermarriage. She thinks marriage between whites and Negroes is an individual matter since it is a very personal problem. The unanimous condemnation of the Southland came down upon her.

I worked all evening and at midnight was back at the radio station to repeat the program for the west coast, which made the day seen quite long.

… defiling the race line

People always suffer for what governments have done.

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.

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

… it is well to realize that as the years go on, we are being given a constantly increasing variety of ways in which we may do things, so we have a choice and may fit whatever we do to our personal needs and the circumstances of the moment. There are often times when I would rather travel by train, there are many times when nothing gives more pleasure than to step into a car and drive off. There are other times when I can think of no way in which to go where I want except by air. There are many times when I would rather sit at home and listen to the radio. There are times when I want to be in the great hall and actually see the orchestra playing, or hear the speech being made. It is all a question of meeting our needs and desires in new ways.

The encouraging thing is that every time you meet a situation, though you may 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 ever were before. If you can live through that you can live through anything. You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you 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.' The danger lies in refusing to face the fear, in not daring to come to grips with it. If you fail anywhere along the line, it will take away your confidence. You must make yourself succeed every time. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face... we must do that which we think we cannot.

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

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.

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.'

With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.