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A Successful Life For A Man Or For A Woman Seems To Me To Lie In The Knowledge That One Has Developed To The Limit The Capacities With Which One Was Endowed; That One Has Contributed Something Constructive To Family And Friends And To A Home Community; That One Has Brought Happiness Wherever It Was Possible; That One Has Earned One's Way In The World, Has Kept Some Friends, And Need Not Be Ashamed To Face Oneself Honestly.

-Eleanor Roosevelt

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A Successful Life For

Eleanor Roosevelt

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A Successful Life For A Man Or For A Woman Seems To Me To Lie In The Knowledge That One Has Developed To The Limit The Capacities With Which One Was Endowed; That One Has Contributed Something Constructive To Family And Friends And To A Home Community; That One Has Brought Happiness Wherever It Was Possible; That One Has Earned One's Way In The World, Has Kept Some Friends, And Need Not Be Ashamed To Face Oneself Honestly.

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The Film Industry Is A Great Industry, With Infinite Possibilities For Good And Bad. Its Primary Purpose Is To Entertain People. On The Side, It Can Do Many Other Things. It Can Popularize Certain Ideals, It Can Make Education Palatable. But In The Long Run, The Judge Who Decides Whether What It Does Is Good Or Bad Is The Man Or Woman Who Attends The Movies.

...but There Isn't Going To Be Any First Lady. There Is Just To Be Plain, Ordinary Mrs. Roosevelt...i Never Wanted To Be The President's Wife, And Don't Want It Now. You Don't Quite Believe Me, Do You? Very Likely No One Would-except Possibly Some Woman Who Had Had The Job.

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.

For All Of Us, As We Grow Older, Perhaps The Most Important Thing Is To Keep Alive Our Love Of Others And To Believe That Our Love And Interest Are As Vitally Necessary To Them As To Us. This Is What Makes Us Keep On Growing And Refills The Fountains Of Energy.

Practically Nothing We Do Ever Stands By Itself. If It Is Good, It Will Serve Some Good Purpose In The Future. If It Is Evil, It May Haunt Us And Handicap Our Efforts In Unimagined Ways.

All Of Life Is A Constant Education.

Probably The Happiest Period In Life Most Frequently Is In Middle Age, When The Eager Passions Of Youth Are Cooled, And The Infirmities Of Age Not Yet Begun; As We See That The Shadows, Which Are At Morning And Evening So Large, Almost Entirely Disappear At Midday.

On The Whole Our Armed Services Have Been Doing Pretty Well In The Way Of Keeping Us Defended, But I Hope Our State Department Will Remember That It Is Really The Department Of Achieving Peace.

Actors Are One Family Over The Entire World.

A Great Deal Of Fear Is A Result Of Just “not Knowing.” We Do Not Know What Is Involved In A New Situation. We Do Not Know Whether We Can Deal With It. The Sooner We Learn What It Entails, The Sooner We Can Dissolve Our Fear.

I Don't Know Much About Capitalism, But I Do Know About Democracy And Freedom, And If Capitalism May Change In Many, Many Ways, I'm Not Really Very Much Interested In Capitalism.

I Believe That It Is Essential To Our Leadership In The World And To The Development Of True Democracy In Our Country To Have No Discrimination In Our Country Whatsoever. This Is Most Important In The Schools Of Our Country.

To Some Of Us, Hunger Was More Academic Than Real, But We Must Try To Develop The Ability To Feel The Urgency Of Such A Situation.

Home-making Today Should Have A Background Of Scientific Training Because Only In This Way Can Real Efficiency Be Achieved. The Average Girl Wants To Be Able To Keep Her House With The Least Possible Strain, And In Order To Do This She Must Have Good Training. This Can Best Be Achieved By Taking A Good Course In Home Economics.

The Future Is Literally In Our Hands To Mold As We Like. But We Cannot Wait Until Tomorrow. Tomorrow Is Now.

Every Day Do Something That Frightens You.

If You Take Stands In Any Way And People Feel That You Have Any Success In - A Following, Why Those Who Disagree With You Are Going To Feel Very Strongly About It.

Once Your Children Are Grown Up And Have Children Of Their Own, The Problems Are Theirs And The Less The Older Generation Interferes The Better.

An Economic Policy Which Does Not Consider The Well-being Of All Will Not Serve The Purposes Of Peace And The Growth Of Well-being Among The People Of All Nations.

Do The Things That Interest You And Do Them With All Your Heart. Don't Be Concerned About Whether People Are Watching You Or Criticizing You. The Chances Are That They Aren't Paying Any Attention To You. It's Your Attention To Yourself That Is So Stultifying. But You Have To Disregard Yourself As Completely As Possible. If You Fail The First Time Then You'll Just Have To Try Harder The Second Time. After All, There's No Real Reason Why You Should Fail. Just Stop Thinking About Yourself.

It Is So Much Easier To Be Enthusiastic Than To Reason!

Nobody Else Is Going To Do The Things Which Are Yours To Be Done In The World.

If You Have Any Interests You Can Gain A Wider Audience For Those Interests While The Goldfish Bowl Is Yours!

If The Use Of Leisure Time Is Confined To Looking At Tv For A Few Extra Hours Every Day, We Will Deteriorate As A People.

Long Ago, There Was A Noble Word, Liberal, Which Derives From The Word Free. Now A Strange Thing Happened To That Word. A Man Named Hitler Made It A Term Of Abuse, A Matter Of Suspicion, Because Those Who Were Not With Him Were Against Him, And Liberals Had No Use For Hitler. And Then Another Man Named Mccarthy Cast The Same Opprobrium On The Word. ... We Must Cherish And Honor The Word Free Or It Will Cease To Apply To Us.

Poverty Is An Expensive Luxury. We Cannot Afford It.

The Most Important Word In The English Language Is Hope.

You Can Often Change Your Circumstances By Changing Your Attitude

The Morality Of A [political] Party Must Grow Out Of The Conscience And The Participation Of The Voters.

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.

I Could Never Say In The Morning, "i Have A Headache And Cannot Do Thus And So". Headache Or No Headache, Thus And So Had To Be Done.

Justice Cannot Be For One Side Alone, But Must Be For Both.

Every Woman Wants To Be First To Someone Sometime In Her Life And That Desire Is The Explanation For Many Strange Things Women Do.

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.

Do The Things That Interest You And Do Them With All Your Heart. Don't Be Concerned About Whether People Are Watching You Or Criticizing You. The Chances Are That They Aren't Paying Attention To You.

We Do Not Move Forward By Curtailing People's Liberty Because We Are Afraid Of What They May Do Or Say.

This Is A Strange, Little, Complacent Country [switzerland], In Many Ways A Usa In Miniature But Of Course Nearer The Center Of Disturbance!

Change Means The Unknown.

Perhaps Nature Is Our Best Assurance Of Immortality.

There Is A Widespread Understanding Among The People Of This Nation, And Probably Among The People Of The World, That There Is No Safety Except Through The Prevention Of War.

I Never Waste Time Looking Back.

We Must Do That Which We Think We Cannot.

Feelings, Too, Are Facts. Emotion Is A Fact. Human Experience Is A Fact. It Is Often Possible To Gain More Real Insight Into Human Beings And Their Motivation By Reading Great Fiction Than By Personal Acquaintance.

There Never Has Been Security. No Man Has Ever Known What He Would Meet Around The Next Corner; If Life Were Predictable It Would Cease To Be Life, And Be Without Flavor.

I Wonder If One Of The Penalties Of Growing Older Is That You Become More And More Conscious That Nothing Is Very Permanent.

Your Ambition Should Be To Get As Much Life Out Of Living As You Possibly Can, As Much Enjoyment, As Much Interest, As Much Experience, As Much Understanding. Not Simply Be What Is Generally Called A 'success.'

Friendship With Ones Self Is All Important, Because Without It One Cannot Be Friends With Anyone Else In The World.

Some People Are Going To Leave A Mark On This World, While Others Will Leave A Stain.

No One Can Insult You Without Your Permission.

I Feel Quite Sure That The American People, If They Have Knowledge And Leadership, Can Meet Any Crisis Just As Well As They Met It Over And Over Again In The Past.

Everyone Has The Right To Rest And Leisure, Including Reasonable Limitation Of Working Hours And Periodic Holidays With Pay.

It Is Not More Vacation We Need — It Is More Vocation.

If It's A Man's Game So Decidedly That A Woman Would Be Soiled By Entering It, Then There Is Something Radically Wrong With The American Game Of Politics.

The Leisure Class Is One In Which Individuals Have Sufficient Economic Security And Sufficient Leisure To Find Opportunity For A Variety Of Satisfactions In Life.

Satisfaction In Life

We Must Want For Others, Not Ourselves Alone.

We Must Be Willing To Learn The Lesson That Cooperation May Imply Compromise, But If It Brings A World Advance It Is A Gain For Each Individual Nation.

I Have Always Seen Life Personally; My Interest Or Sympathy Or Indignation Is Not Aroused By An Abstract Cause But By The Plight Of A Single Person...out Of My Response To An Individual Develops An Awareness Of A Problem To The Community, Then To The Country, Then To The World.

After The Discovery In 1918 Of Love Letters Revealing That Franklin Was Involved With Lucy Mercer: The Bottom Dropped Out Of My Own Particular World, I Faced Myself, My Surroundings, My World, Honestly For The First Time.

Have Convictions. Be Friendly. Stick To Your Beliefs As They Stick To Theirs. Work As Hard As They Do.

Our Real Battlefield Today Is Asia And Our Real Battle Is The One Between Democracy And Communism. . . . We Have To Prove To The World And Particularly To Downtrodden Areas Of The World Which Are The Natural Prey To The Principles Of Communist Economics That Democracy Really Brings About Happier And Better Conditions For The People As A Whole.

I Am Who I Am Today Because Of The Choices I Made Yesterday.

I Do Not Think I Will Ever Become Deadened, Because I Live In Other People's Lives, I Must Admit There Are Times When It Weighs Medown Because I Can't Do Some Of The Things I Want.

It Is Always Disagreeable To Take Stands. It Is Always Easier To Compromise, Always Easier To Let Things Go. To Many Women, And I Am One Of Them, It Is Extraordinarily Difficult To Care About Anything Enough To Cause Disagreement Or Unpleasant Feelings, But I Have Come To The Conclusion That This Must Be Done For A Time Until We Can Prove Our Strength And Demand Respect For Our Wishes. We Cannot Even Be Of Real Service In The Coming Campaign And Speak As A United Body Of Women Unless We Have The Respect Of Men And Show That When We Express A Wish, We Are Willing To Stand By It.

A Little Simplification Would Be The First Step Toward Rational Living, I Think.

Inspirational Life

There Is A Desire For Progress In The Hearts Of All Men, And It Is The Sense Of Frustration And Inability To Move Forward That Brings Violent Revolution.

People Grow Through Experience If They Meet Life Honestly And Courageously. This Is How Character Is Built.

Lest I Keep My Complacent Way I Must Remember Somewhere Out There A Person Died For Me Today. As Long As There Must Be War, I Ask And I Must Answer Was I Worth Dying For?

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.

I Believe That It Is A Great Mistake Not To Stand Up For People, Even When You Differ With Them, If You Feel That They Are Trying To Do Things That Will Help Our Country.

I Never Thought Of Achievement. I Just Did What Came Along For Me To Do - The Thing That Gave Me The Most Pleasure.

This Living In A Democracy Is A Problem, Isn't It?

I Do Not Want Church Groups Controlling The Schools Of Our Country. They Must Remain Free.

All Human Beings Have Failings, All Human Beings Have Needs And Temptations And Stresses. Men And Women Who Live Together Through Long Years Get To Know One Another's Failings; But They Also Come To Know What Is Worthy Of Respect And Admiration In Those They Live With And In Themselves. If At The End One Can Say, This Man Used To The Limit The Powers That God Granted Him; He Was Worthy Of Love And Respect And Of The Sacrifices Of Many People, Made In Order That He Might Achieve What He Deemed To Be His Task, Then That Life Has Been Lived Well And There Are No Regrets.

I Think It Is Impossible For One Human Being Really To Know Another Without First Knowing And Being At Peace With Himself.

The Most Important Thing In Any Relationship Is Not What You Get But What You Give.... In Any Case, The Giving Of Love Is An Education In Itself.

I Am Convinced That Every Effort Must Be Made In Childhood To Teach The Young To Use Their Own Minds. For One Thing Is Sure: If They Don't Make Up Their Minds, Someone Will Do It For Them.

Never Allow A Person To Tell You No Who Doesn't Have The Power To Say Yes.

Success Must Include Two Things: The Development Of An Individual To His Utmost Potentiality And A Contribution Of Some Kind To One's World.

Since Everybody Is An Individual, Nobody Can Be You. You Are Unique. No One Can Tell You How To Use Your Time. It Is Yours. Your Life Is Your Own. You Mold It. You Make It.

Autobiographies Are Only Useful As The Lives You Read About And Analyze May Suggest To You Something That You May Find Useful In Your Own Journey Through Life.

Many People Will Walk In And Out Of Your Life, But Only True Friends Will Leave Footprints In Your Heart

Sometimes It Is Extremely Good For You To Forget That There Is Anything In The World Which Needs To Be Done, And To Do Some Particular Thing That You Want To Do. Every Human Being Needs A Certain Amount Of Time In Which He Can Be Peaceful.

It Seems To Me Of Great Importance To Teach Children Respect For Life.

Comparison Is The Thief Of All Joy.

Courage Is More Exhilarating Than Fear And In The Long Run It Is Easier. We Do Not Have To Become Heroes Over Night. 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.

The Word Liberal Comes From The Word Free. We Must Cherish And Honor The Word Free Or It Will Cease To Apply To Us.

We Are Given In Our Newspapers And On Tv And Radio Exactly What We, The Public, Insist On Having, And This Very Frequently Is Mediocre Information And Mediocre Entertainment.

...real Prosperity Can Only Come When Everybody Prospers.

Work Is Always An Antidote To Depression.

A Guest Is Really Good Or Bad Because Of The Host Or Hostess Who Makes Being A Guest An Easy Or A Difficult Task.

Human Resources Are The Most Valuable Assets The World Has. They Are All Needed Desperately.

Only A Man's Character Is The Real Criterion Of Worth.

Do The Things That Interest You And Do Them With All Your Heart.

I Can Not Believe That War Is The Best Solution. No One Won The Last War, And No One Will Win The Next War.

...no Matter How Avid They Themselves May Be For Praise And Appreciation, People Are Often Niggardly In Giving It To Others, However Merited It Is.

Do Not Be Afraid Of Mistakes, Provided You Do Not Make The Same One Twice.

The Greatest Tragedy Of Old Age Is The Tendency For The Old To Feel Unneeded, Unwanted, And Of No Use To Anyone; The Secret Of Happiness In The Declining Years Is To Remain Interested In Life, As Active As Possible, Useful To Others, Busy, And Forward Looking.

No Human Being Can Ever 'own' Another, Whether In Friendship, Love, Marriage, Or Parenthood.

Friendship Love

At All Times, Day By Day, We Have To Continue Fighting For Freedom Of Religion, Freedom Of Speech, And Freedom From Want... For These Are Things That Must Be Gained In Peace As Well As In War.

Success In Marriage Depends On Being Able, When You Get Over Being In Love, To Really Love....you Never Know Anyone Until You Marry Them.

As With All Children, The Feeling That I Was Useful Was Perhaps The Greatest Joy I Experienced.

The Family Is The Natural And Fundamental Group Unit Of Society And Is Entitled To Protection By Society And The State.

What You Don't Do Can Be A Destructive Force.

We Must Preserve Our Right To Think And Differ.

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.

I Received A Most Amusing Postcard The Other Morning. Unfortunately, It Was Not Signed In A Readable Manner So I Cannot Answer It Privately. But It Comes From Moblie, Ala., And Says: 'dear Mrs. Roosevelt: You Have Not Answered My Question, The Amount Of Negro Blood You Have In Your Veins, If Any.' I Am Afraid None Of Us Know How Much Nor What Kind Of Blood We Have In Our Veins, Since Chemically It Is All The Same. And Most Of Us Cannot Trace Our Ancestry More Than A Few Generations.

Staying Aloof Is Not A Solution, It Is A Cowardly Evasion.

To Undo A Mistake Is Always Harder Than Not To Create One Originally But We Seldom Have The Foresight. Therefore We Have No Choice But To Try To Correct Our Past Mistakes.

The Giving Of Love And Understanding Is An Education In Itself.

No Matter How Plain A Woman May Be, If Truth And Honesty Are Written Across Her Face, She Will Be Beautiful.

You Can't Move So Fast That You Try To Change The Mores Faster Than People Can Accept It.

The Things You Refuse To Meet Today Always Come Back At You Later On, Usually Under Circumstances Which Make The Decision Twice As Difficult As It Originally Was.

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.

The Only Things One Can Admire At Length Are Those One Admires Without Knowing Why.

The People Who Came To New England, Came For Freedom Of Religion. The Problem Is, Freedom Of Religion To Them Meant Freedom For Only Their Religion

I Have Complete Faith In The American People's Ability If They Know And If They Have Leadership.

Remember Always That You Have Not Only The Right To Be An Individual; You Have An Obligation To Be One.

It Is Harder To Be Philosophical When You Are Young.

Democracy Cannot Be Static. Whatever Is Static Is Dead.

America Is All About Speed. Hot, Nasty, Bad-ass Speed.

Courage Is More Exhilarating Than Fear, And In The Long Run, It Is Easier.

The Marines I Have Seen Around The World Have The Cleanest Bodies, The Filthiest Minds, The Highest Morale, And The Lowest Morals Of Any Group Of Animals I Have Ever Seen. Thank God For The United States Marine Corps!

I Have Always Felt That It Was Important That Everyone Who Was A Worker Join A Labor Organization.

Basically We Could Not Have Peace, Or An Atmosphere In Which Peace Could Grow, Unless We Recognized The Rights Of Individual Human Beings... Their Importance, Their Dignity... And Agreed That Was The Basic Thing That Had To Be Accepted Throughout The World.

Understanding Is A Two-way Street.

... Any Citizen Should Be Willing To Give All That He Has To Give His Country In Work Or Sacrifice In Times Of Crisis.

If Quitting Smoking Seems Hard Right Now, It Is Exactly What You Should Start Doing

Before We Can Make Friends With Anyone Else, We Must First Make Friends With Ourselves.

Your Life Is Your Own. You Mold It. You Make It. All Anyone Can Do Is To Point Out Ways And Means Which Have Been Helpful To Others. Perhaps They Will Serve As Suggestions To Stimulate Your Own Thinking Until You Know What It Is That Will Fulfill You, Will Help You To Find Out What You Want To Do With Your Life.

I Have A Great Belief In Spiritual Force, But I Think We Have To Realize That Spiritual Force Alone Has To Have Material Force With It So Long As We Live In A Material World. The Two Together Make A Strong Combination.

To A Certain Extent I Don't See Any Real Need For Socialism In The United States Immediately, But Things Change And It May Be That There Will Come A Need For Partial Changes In Our Economy.

I Was Perfectly Certain That I Had Nothing To Offer Of An Individual Nature And That My Only Chance Of Doing My Duty As The Wife Of A Public Official Was To Do Exactly As The Majority Of Women Were Doing.

You Wouldn't Worry So Much About What Others Think Of You If You Realized How Seldom They Do.

Most Women, I Think, Though They May Complain A Little About This, Would Agree That Meeting The Needs Of Others Is Not A Real Burden; It Is What Makes Life Worth Living. It Is Probably The Deepest Satisfaction A Woman Has.

The Mind Must Be Trained, Rather Than The Memory.

I'm Intensely Anxious To Preserve The Freedom That Gives You The Right To Think And To Act And To Talk As You Please. That I Think Is Essential To Happiness And The Life Of The People.

The Term 'young Adults' Which Is So Often Used Today Seems To Me A Misnomer, And One Which, If Taken Seriously, May Lead The Adolescent Into Misunderstanding As To His Nature And His Role In Life. 'young" He Is; 'adult' He Is Not.

It Is Not Fair To Ask Of Others What You Are Not Willing To Do Yourself.

As For Accomplishments, I Just Did What I Had To Do As Things Came Along.

When You Build A Memorial, You Build It Not Because The Person Wanted It, But For The Future -- For Generations Who Didn't Know The Man And Didn't Know The Era In Which He Lived.

Be Flexible, But Stick To Your Principles.

A Candle Can Bring Light To A Dungeon But It Can Also Be Used To Light A Deadly Marijuana Cigarette.

I Feel Quite Sure That What The American People Lack Is Knowledge.

I Carried It (a Revolver) Religiously And During The Summer I Asked A Friend, A Man Who Had Been One Of Franklin's Bodyguards In New York State, To Give Me Some Practice In Target Shooting So That If The Need Arose I Would Know How To Use The Gun.

I Have Often Felt That I Cheated My Children A Little. I Was Never So Totally Theirs As Most Mothers Are. I Gave To Audiences Whatbelonged To My Children, Got Back From Audiences The Love My Children Longed To Give Me.

Happiness Is Not A Goal, It Is A By-product. For What Keeps Our Interest In Life And Makes Us Look Forward To Tomorrow Is Giving Pleasure To Other People.

Each Time You Learn Something New You Must Readjust The Whole Framework Of Your Knowledge

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 Competence.

The Battle For The Individual Rights Of Women Is One Of Long Standing And None Of Us Should Countenance Anything Which Undermines It.

Poor Minds Talk About People Average Minds Talk About Events Great Minds Talk About Ideas

To Appear To Be On The Inside And Know More Than Others About What Is Going On Is A Great Temptation For Most People. It Is A Rare Person Who Is Willing To Seem To Know Less Than He Does ... Somehow, People Seem To Feel That It Is Belittling To Their Importance Not To Know More Than Other People.

One Of The Best Ways Of Enslaving A People Is To Keep Them From Education... The Second Way Of Enslaving A People Is To Suppress The Sources Of Information, Not Only By Burning Books But By Controlling All The Other Ways In Which Ideas Are Transmitted.

The Kind Of Propaganda That Some Of The Religious Groups, Aided And Abetted By The Opposition, Put Forth In That Campaign Utterly Disgusted Me. If I Needed Anything To Show Me What Prejudice Can Do To The Intelligence Of Human Beings That Campaign Was The Best Lesson I Could Have Had.

I Think We Ought To Impress On Both Our Girls And Boys That Successful Marriages Require Just As Much Work, Just As Much Intelligence And Just As Much Unselfish Devotion, As They Give To Any Position They Undertake To Fill On A Paid Basis.

No One Is All-knowing And Therefore All Of Us Need Both Love And Charity.

When You Have Decided What You Believe, What You Feel Must Be Done, Have The Courage To Stand Alone And Be Counted

The Only Joy In This Hard Life Is Serving Others.

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.

A Mature Person Is One Who Does Not Think Only In Absolutes, Who Is Able To Be Objective Even When Deeply Stirred Emotionally, Who Has Learned That There Is Both Good And Bad In All People And In All Things, And Who Walks Humbly And Deals Charitably With The Circumstances Of Life, Knowing That In This World No One Is All Knowing And Therefore All Of Us Need Both Love And Charity.

...conservation Of Land And Conservation Of People Frequently Go Hand In Hand.

It Seems To Me That It Is The Basic Right Of Any Human Being To Work.

Pit Race Against Race, Religion Against Religion, Prejudice Against Prejudice. Divide And Conquer! We Must Not Let That Happen Here.

Ability Is Not Something To Be Saved, Like Money, In The Hope That You Can Draw Interest On It. The Interest Comes From The Spending. Unused Ability, Like Unused Muscles, Will Atrophy. It Is Tragic To Realize That The Majority Of Human Beings, Even The So-called Educated, Call Upon Only The Smallest Fraction Of Their Potential Capacity. They Leave Many Talents Dormant. They Fail To Develop Their Mental Qualities. They Are Almost Unaware Of The Degree Of Energy Upon Which They Might Call To Build A Full And Rewarding Life.

If Anyone Were To Ask Me What I Want Out Of Life I Would Say- The Opportunity For Doing Something Useful, For In No Other Way, I Am Convinced, Can True Happiness Be Attained.

Each Of Us Has... All The Time There Is. Those Years, Weeks, Hours, Are The Sands In The Glass Running Swiftly Away. To Let Them Drift Through Our Fingers Is Tragic Waste. To Use Them To The Hilt, Making Them Count For Something, Is The Beginning Of Wisdom.

If You Approach Each New Person You Meet In A Spirit Of Adventure, You Will Find Yourself Endlessly Fascinated By The New Channels Of Thought And Experience And Personality That You Encounter.

I Think If The People Of This Country Can Be Reached With The Truth, Their Judgment Will Be In Favor Of The Many, As Against The Privileged Few

A Stumbling Block To The Pessimist Is A Stepping-stone To The Optimist.

Philosophy Is Not Best Expressed In Words; It Is Expressed In The Choices One Makes.

There Is Nothing To Regret, Either For Those Who Go, Or For Those Who Stay Behind — Only An Inheritance Of Good Accomplishment To Be Lived Up To By Those Who Carry A Loving Memory In Their Hearts.

Every Woman In Public Life Needs To Develop Skin As Tough As Rhinoceros Hide.

When Life Is Too Easy For Us, We Must Beware Or We May Not Be Ready To Meet The Blows Which Sooner Or Later Come To Everyone, Rich Or Poor.

Campaign Behavior For Wives: Always Be On Time. Do As Little Talking As Humanly Possible. Lean Back In The Parade Car So Everybody Can See The President.

I Shall Either Find A Way, Or Make One (attributed)

Women Are Like Tea Bags: Put Them In Hot Water And They Get Stronger.

One Thing Is For Sure-none Of The Arts Flourishes On Censorship And Repression. And By This Time It Should Be Evident That The American Public Is Capable Of Doing Its Own Censoring.

Of Course, I Do Not Believe In Having Everyone Who Is A Liberal Called A Communist, Or Everyone Who Is Conservative Called A Fascist.

It Seems To Me That I Cannot Afford, As A Self-respecting Individual, To Refuse To Do A Thing Merely Because It Will Make Me Disliked Or Bring Down A Storm Of Criticism On My Head.

I Found That Almost Everyone Had Something Interesting To Contribute To My Education.

Something Interesting

Smearing Good People Like Lauchlin Currie [former Administrative Assistant To President Roosevelt], Alger Hiss And Others Is, I Think, Unforgiveable... Anyone Knowing Mr. Currie Or Mr. Hiss, Who Are The Two People Whom I Happen To Know Fairly Well, Would Not Need Any Denial On Their Part To Know They Are Not Communists. Their Records Prove It.

The Only Advantage Of Not Being Too Good A Housekeeper Is That Your Guests Are So Pleased To Feel How Very Much Better They Are.

... Many Of The Things Which We Deplore, The Prevalence Of Tuberculosis, The Mounting Record Of Crime In Certain Sections Of The Country, Are Not Due Just To Lack Of Education And To Physical Differences, But Are Due In Great Part To The Basic Fact Of Segregation Which We Have Set Up In This Country And Which Warps And Twists The Lives Not Only Of Our Negro Population, But Sometimes Of Foreign Born Or Even Of Religious Groups.

My Experience Has Been That Work Is Almost The Best Way To Pull Oneself Out Of The Depths.

How Hard It Is To Project Oneself Into The Future. We Are Always Prone To Think Of The Conditions Which Are With Us Today As Being Permanent Conditions.

It Is A Brave Thing To Have Courage To Be An Individual; It Is Also, Perhaps, A Lonely Thing. But It Is Better Than Not Being An Individual, Which Is To Be Nobody At All.

The Choices We Make Are Ultimately Our Responsibility.

Personal Accountability

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.

Those Of Us Who Believe In The Right Of Any Human Being To Belong To Whatever Church He Sees Fit, And To Worship God In His Own Way, Cannot Be Accused Of Prejudice When We Do Not Want To See Public Education Connected With Religious Control Of The Schools, Which Are Paid For By Taxpayers' Money.

Life Must Be Lived And Curiosity Kept Alive. One Must Never, For Whatever Reason, Turn His Back On Life.

It's Your Life-but Only If You Make It So.

Hate And Force Cannot Be In Just A Part Of The World Without Having An Effect On The Rest Of It.

I Know That Given Great Responsibility Men Sometimes Change, But Mr. Nixon's Presidency Would Worry Me.

You Never Have A Normal Family Relationship In The White House; It's An Impossible Thing To Have. You Live In A Goldfish Bubble, And You Snatch What You Can For A Personal Life, But You Never Have A Normal, Natural Existence.

Impossible Things

The Separation Of Church And State Is Extremely Important To Any Of Us Who Holds To The Original Traditions Of Our Nation. . . . To Change These Traditions . . . Would Be Harmful To Our Whole Attitude Of Tolerance In The Religious Area. If We Look At Situations Which Have Arisen In The Past In Europe And Other World Areas, I Think We Will See The Reason Why It Is Wise To Hold To Our Early Traditions.

When You Cease To Make A Contribution, You Begin To Die.

I Believe You Should Tell The Story Of Injustices, Of Inequalities, Of Bad Conditions, So That The People As A Whole In This Country Really Face The Problems That People Who Are Pushed To The Point Of Striking Know All About, But Others Know Practically Nothing About.

We Can No Longer Oversimplify. We Can No Longer Build Lazy And False Stereotypes: Americans Are Like This, Russians Are Like That, A Jew Behaves In Such A Way, A Negro Thinks In A Different Way. The Lazy Generalities - 'you Know How Women Are ... Isn't That Just Like A Man?' The World Cannot Be Understood From A Single Point Of View.

As Life Developed, I Faced Each Problem As It Came Along. As My Activities And Work Broadened And Reached Out, I Never Tried To Shirk. I Tried Never To Evade An Issue. When I Found I Had Something To Do--i Just Did It.

Curiously Enough, It Is Often The People Who Refuse To Assume Any Responsibility Who Are Apt To Be The Sharpest Critics Of Those Who Do.

Remember, No One Can Make You Feel Inferior Without Being Related To You And Repeatedly Questioning Why You're In Nonprofit.

Questioning Why

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