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Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes and Quotations
What one has to do usually can be done. 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!' Character building begins in our infancy, and continues until death. When you cease to make a contribution you begin to die. I think somehow we learn who we really are and then live with that decision. No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Life has got to be lived-that's all that there is to it. 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." Happiness is not a goal, it is a byproduct. You always admire what you really don't understand. When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die. Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else. Somehow we learn who we really are and then live with that decision. No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. No man is defeated without until he has first been defeated within. Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else. I'm glad I never feel important, it does complicate life. More people are ruined by victory, I imagine, than by defeat. It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself. 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. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. This I know. This I believe with all my heart. If we want a free and peaceful world, if we want to make the deserts bloom and man grow to greater dignity as a human being- we can do it! This I know. This I believe with all my heart. If we want a free and peaceful world, if we want to make the deserts bloom and man grow to greater dignity as a human being-we can do it! 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. Change means the unknown. Somehow we learn who we really are and then live with that decision. The trouble is that not enough people have come together with the firm determination to live the things which they say they believe. Somehow we learn who we really are and then live with that decision. Remember always that you have not only the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one. Criticism ... makes very little dent upon me, unless I think there is some real justification and something should be done. No leader can be too far ahead of his followers. You can't move so fast that you try to change [a situation] 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. No one from the beginning of time has had security. If we want a free and peaceful world, if we want to make the deserts bloom and man grow to greater dignity as a human being-we can do it. You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.... You must do the thing you think you cannot do. 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 experiences behind him. What one has to do usually can be done. What you don't do can be a destructive force. For 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. 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. When you have decided what you believe, what you feel must be done, have the courage to stand alone and be counted. You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with the best you have to give. When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on. The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything. Do not be afraid of mistakes, providing you do not make the same one twice. Every time you meet a situation, though you think at the time it is an impossibility and you go through the torture of the damned, once you have met it and lived through it, you find that forever after you are freer than you were before. 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. No leader can be too far ahead of his followers. |