Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Eleanor Roosevelt, fully Anna Eleanor Roosevelt

American Social Activist, Humanitarian, Columnist, Lecturer and First Lady of the United States, wife of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt

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

"All big changes in human history have been arrived at slowly and through many compromises."

"It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan."

"Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn one’s back on life."

"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."

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

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."

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

"We cannot exist as a little island of well-being in a world where two-thirds of the people go to be hungry every night."

"Tomorrow is now."

"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."

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

"When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?"

"Believe in yourself. You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face. You must do that which you think you cannot do."

"Courage is more exhilarating than fear, and in the long run, easier."

"It is better to light the candle than to curse the darkness."

"You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

"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.""

"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 and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life."

"When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die."

"A little simplification would be the first step toward rational living, I think. "

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

"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 is own weight, this is a frightening prospect. "

"Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable. "

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

"Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product. "

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

"The giving of love is an education in itself. "

"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 experience behind him. "

"It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself. "

"If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor. "

"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. "

"Only a man's character is the real criterion of worth. "

"Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one. "

"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."

"Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn't have the power to say yes."

"What you don't do can be a destructive force. "

"I have always been willing to make an explanation, but never an excuse, for doing anything I considered proper."

"I think somehow we learn who we really are and then live with that decision."

"If you can give your children a trust in God they will have one sure way of meeting all the uncertainties of existence."

"A society in which everyone works is not necessarily a free society and may indeed be a slave society; on the other hand, a society in which there is widespread insecurity can turn freedom into a barren and vapid right for millions of people."

"Before we can make friends with anyone else, we must first make friends with ourselves."

"The purpose of life is to live it."

"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!'"

"Understanding is a two-way street."

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, the farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."