No One Can Make You Feel Inferior Without Your Consent | Quote Investigator No One Can Make You Feel Inferior Without Your Consent Eleanor Roosevelt? Reader’s Digest? Apocryphal? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: There is a remarkably insightful statement about self-esteem that is usually credited to Eleanor Roosevelt, the diplomat and former First Lady: No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. This is one of my favorite quotations, but I have not been able to determine when it was first said. One quotation dictionary claimed that the saying was in the autobiography “This is My Story” by Roosevelt, but I was unable to find it. Did Eleanor Roosevelt really say this? Could you tell me where I can locate this quotation? Quote Investigator: This popular aphorism is the most well-known guidance ascribed to Roosevelt. Quotation experts such as Rosalie Maggio and Ralph Keyes have explored the origin of this saying. Surprisingly, a thorough examination of the books the First Lady authored and her other archived writings has failed to discover any instances of the quote [QVFI]. Yet, the saying has been attributed to Roosevelt for more than seventy years.

The earliest example located by QI appeared in the pages of the widely-distributed periodical Reader’s Digest in September of 1940 [RDFI]: No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Eleanor Roosevelt Thus, from the beginning the phrase was credited to Roosevelt. However, no supporting reference was given in the magazine, and the quote stood alone at the bottom of a page with unrelated article text above it. Recently, QI located some intriguing evidence, and he now believes that the creation of this maxim can be traced back to comments made by Eleanor Roosevelt about an awkward event in 1935. The Secretary of Labor in the Roosevelt administration was invited to give a speech at the University of California, Berkeley on the Charter Day of the school. The customary host of the event was unhappy because she felt that the chosen speaker should not have been a political figure. She refused to serve as the host and several newspaper commentators viewed her action as a rebuff and an insult. Eleanor Roosevelt was asked at a White House press conference whether the Secretary had been snubbed, and her response was widely disseminated in newspapers.

Here is an excerpt from an Associated Press article [ERNC]: “A snub” defined the first lady, “is the effort of a person who feels superior to make someone else feel inferior. To do so, he has to find someone who can be made to feel inferior.” She made clear she didn’t think the labor secretary fell within the category of the “snubable.” Note that this statement by Roosevelt in 1935 contained the key elements of the quotation that was assigned to her by 1940. One person may try to make a second person feel inferior, but this second person can resist and simply refuse to feel inferior. In this example, the labor secretary refused to consent to feel inferior. The precise wording given for Roosevelt’s statement varied. Here is another example that was printed in a syndicated newspaper column called “So They Say!” the following week. The columnist stated that the following was the definition of a “snub” given by Roosevelt [OWFI]: I think it is the effort of a person who feels superior to make someone else feel inferior. First, though, you have to find someone who can be made to feel inferior. Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Sometime between 1935 and 1940 some unknown person synthesized a compact and stylish aphorism based on the commentary made by Eleanor Roosevelt, and that statement was published in the Reader’s Digest. Roosevelt may have performed this reformulation herself, but currently there is no evidence to support that possibility [RDFI]: No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Eleanor Roosevelt The next month, in October of 1940 the saying appeared as the first line of an editorial in a newspaper from Iowa. The words were placed between quotation marks, but no attribution was given [LPFI]: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent” That is a good thing to remember. If you feel uncertain of yourself, it is a good pointer to remember. If you feel uncertain of yourself, it is easy to make you feel inferior by making a slighting remark. But if you feel confident you can laugh it off.

At the end of October the maxim appeared freestanding in an Alaskan newspaper where it was credited to Roosevelt [FDFI]: Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” In June of 1941 the aphorism appeared on a newspaper page dedicated to the topics of “Home, Church, Religion, Character” within a column titled “Sermonograms”. The words were credited to Eleanor Roosevelt [HNFI]. In February of 1944 the saying appeared in the widely-read syndicated column of Walter Winchell where it was again credited to Roosevelt [WWF1]. In February 1945 the maxim was repeated in Winchell’s influential column. On this second occasion Winchell employed a word from his specialized vocabulary, “Frixample”, in the introduction [WWF2]: Mrs. F.D.R. can turn out punchlines with the best of ’em. Frixample: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent” The Yale Book of Quotations, an essential reference, contains a compelling precursor to the quote under investigation listed as a cross-index term.

More than one-hundred years before the cites above, in 1838, the American clergyman William Ellery Channing said the following [YWEC] [SWEC]: No power in society, no hardship in your condition can depress you, keep you down, in knowledge, power, virtue, influence, but by your own consent. In conclusion, QI believes that Eleanor Roosevelt can be credited with expressing the core idea of this saying by 1935. Within five years the graceful modern version of the maxim was synthesized. QI does not know if Roosevelt or someone else was responsible for this. But QI does believe Roosevelt’s words were the most likely inspiration. [QVFI] 2006, The Quote Verifier by Ralph Keyes, Page 97-98, St Martin’s Griffin, New York. (Verified on paper) [RDFI] 1940 September, The Reader’s Digest, [Free standing quotation], Page 84, Volume 37, The Reader’s Digest Association. (Verified on paper) [ERNC] 1935 March 26, News And Courier, Heart Balm Suit Ban Given Support By Mrs.

Roosevelt, Page 7, Charleston, South Carolina. (Google News Archive) [OWFI] 1935 April 2, Owosso Argus-Press, So They Say!, Page 4, Column 4, Owosso, Michigan. (Google News Archive) [LPFI] 1940 October 10, Lake Park News, The Little Newsance: Editorial by Ardell Proctor, Page 7, Column 1, Lake Park, Iowa. (NewspaperArchive) [FDFI] 1940 October 30, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, [Free standing quotation], Page 2, Column 1, Fairbanks, Alaska. (NewspaperArchive) [HNFI] 1941 June 6, Huntingdon Daily News, Sermonograms, Page 11, Column 2, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. (NewspaperArchive) [WWF1] 1944 February 29, Augusta Chronicle, Walter Winchell: In New York: Notes of an Innocent Bystander, Page 4, Column 7, Augusta, Georgia.

(GenealogyBank) [WWF2] 1945 February 25, St. Petersburg Times, Walter Winchell, Page 24, Column 7, St. Petersburg, Florida. (Google News archive) [YWEC] 2006, The Yale Book of Quotations by Fred R. Shapiro, Section: William Ellery Channing, Page 143, Yale University Press, New Haven. (Verified on paper) [SWEC] 1838 [Address delivered in Boston in September 1838], Self-Culture: An Address Introductory to the Franklin Lectures, Page 80, Dutton and Wentworth, Printers, Boston, Massachusetts. (Google Books full view) link No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. - Eleanor Roosevelt - BrainyQuote No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Find on Amazon: Eleanor Roosevelt Cite this Page: Citation Quotes by Eleanor Roosevelt, Advocate of Human Rights By Jone Johnson Lewis Updated October 31, 2016.

Married to her distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1905, Eleanor Roosevelt worked in settlement houses before focusing on supporting her husband's political career after he contracted poliomyelitis in 1921. Through the Depression and New Deal and then World War II, Eleanor Roosevelt traveled when her husband was less able to. Her daily column "My Day" in the newspaper broke with precedent, as did her press conferences and lectures. After FDR's death, Eleanor Roosevelt continued her political career, serving in the United Nations and helping create the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . Selected Eleanor Roosevelt Quotations 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 which you think you cannot do. No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one. continue reading below our video 10 Facts About the Titanic That You Don't Know The word liberal comes from the word free. We must cherish and honor the word free or it will cease to apply to us.

When you know to laugh and when to look upon things as too absurd to take seriously, the other person is ashamed to carry through even if he was serious about it. It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself. What is to give light must endure the burning. 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. 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. When all is said and done, and statesmen discuss the future of the world, the fact remains that people fight these wars. When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it? Friendship with oneself is all important because without it one cannot be friends with anybody else in the world. 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. I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. I say to the young: "Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively." As for accomplishments, I just did what I had to do as things came along. 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. 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. 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." Too often the great decisions are originated and given form in bodies made up wholly of men, or so completely dominated by them that whatever of special value women have to offer is shunted aside without expression. 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. It was a wife's duty to be interested in whatever interested her husband, whether it was politics, books, or a particular dish for dinner. We women are callow fledglings as compared with the wise old birds who manipulate the political machinery, and we still hesitate to believe that a woman can fill certain positions in public life as competently and adequately as a man. For instance, it is certain that women do not want a woman for President. Nor would they have the slightest confidence in her ability to fulfill the functions of that office. Every woman who fails in a public position confirms this, but every woman who succeeds creates confidence. [1932] No man is defeated without until he has first been defeated within. Marriages are two way streets and when they are not happy both must be willing to adjust. Both must love. It's good to be middle-aged, things don't matter so much, you don't take it so hard when things happen to you that you don't like.

You like to respect and admire someone whom you love, but actually, you love even more the people who require understanding and who make mistakes and have to grow with their mistakes. You can't move so fast that you try to change the mores 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. It is neither unusual nor new for me to have Negro friends, nor is it unusual for me to have found my friends among all races and religions of people. [1953] The separation of church and state is extremely important to any of us who hold to the original traditions of our nation. To change these traditions by changing our traditional attitude toward public education would be harmful, I think, to our whole attitude of tolerance in the religious area. Religious freedom cannot just mean Protestant freedom; it must be freedom of all religious people. Anyone who knows history, particularly the history of Europe, will, I think, recognize that the domination of education or of government by any one particular religious faith is never a happy arrangement for the people. A little simplification would be the first step toward rational living, I think.

The more we simplify our material needs the more we are free to think of other things. One must even beware of too much certainty that the answer to life's problems can only be found in one way and that all must agree to search for light in the same way and cannot find it in any other way. A mature person is one who is 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 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. (from "It Seems to Me" 1954) It is essential to have the leadership of a young and energetic President if we are going to have a program of any validity, so let us look forward to a change in November and hope that youth and wisdom will be combined. (1960, looking forward to the election of John F. Kennedy) Too few of us think of the responsibility facing the man who will be President of the U.S. and of all its people on his inauguration, January 20.

The crowds that have surrounded him during the past year, the feel he has had of the people who did support him -- all this will now seem far away as he sits down to appraise the whole situation before him. (1960, November 14, after the election of John F. Kennedy) You rarely achieve finality. If you did, life would be over, but as you strive new visions open before you, new possibilities for the satisfaction of living. I consider those are rich who are doing something they feel worthwhile and which they enjoy doing. She would rather light candles than curse the darkness, and her glow has warmed the world. (Adlai Stevenson, about Eleanor Roosevelt) More Women's Quotes: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W XYZ About These Quotes Quote collection assembled by Jone Johnson Lewis . This is an informal collection assembled over many years. I regret that I am not be able to provide the original source if it is not listed with the quote. Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes - BrainyQuote Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes Died: November 7 , 1962 Eleanor Roosevelt was a debutante, an activist, and a reluctant first lady.

Her Roosevelt family tree connected her not only to her uncle, the twenty-... Read full biography Links Find on Amazon: Eleanor Roosevelt Cite this Page: Citation Eleanor Roosevelt - Wikiquote Eleanor Roosevelt Jump to: navigation , search It takes courage to love , but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know . Quotes[ edit ] 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." Understanding is a two-way street. Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life. When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it? 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." As quoted in How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (1944; 1948) by Dale Carnegie ; though Roosevelt has sometimes been credited with the originating the expression, "Damned if you do and damned if you don't" is set in quote marks, indicating she herself was quoting a common expression in saying this. Actually, this saying was coined back even earlier, 1836, by evangelist Lorenzo Dow in his sermons about ministers saying the Bible contradicts itself, telling his listeners, "… those who preach it up, to make the Bible clash and contradict itself, by preaching somewhat like this: 'You can and you can't-You shall and you shan't-You will and you won't-And you will be damned if you do-And you will be damned if you don't.' " Understanding is a two-way street. As quoted in Modern Quotations for Ready Reference (1947) by Arthur Richmond, p. 455 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.

Voice of America broadcast (11 November 1951) We have to face the fact that either all of us are going to die together or we are going to learn to live together and if we are to live together we have to talk. The New York Times (1960), as cited in The Beacon Book of Quotations by Women (1992) by Rosalie Maggio, p. 156 To me who dreamed so much as a child, who made a dreamworld in which I was the heroine of an unending story, the lives of people around me continued to have a certain storybook quality. I learned something which has stood me in good stead many times — The most important thing in any relationship is not what you get but what you give. Preface (December 1960) to The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt (1961), p. xvi; the last line was originally used in the initial edition of her autobiography: This Is My Story (1937) Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.

Preface (December 1960) to The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt (1961), p. xix 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 would be curiosity. As quoted in Todays Health (October 1966) When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die. As quoted in Eleanor : The Years Alone (1972) by Joseph P. Lash I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision. As quoted in Peter's Quotations : Ideas for Our Time (1972) by Laurence J. Peter, p. 5 Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world. As quoted in The Beacon Book of Quotations by Women (1992) by Rosalie Maggio, p. 130 When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it? As quoted in "On The Universal Declaration of Human Rights" by Hillary Rodham Clinton in Issues of Democracy Vol. 3, No.

3 (October 1998), p. 11 You get more joy out of the giving to others, and should put a good deal of thought into the happiness you are able to give. As quoted in Sheroes: Bold, Brash, and Absolutely Unabashed Superwomen from Susan B. Anthony to Xena (1998) by Varla Ventura, p. 150 I think I have a good deal of my Uncle Theodore in me, because I could not, at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. As quoted in The Three Roosevelts: Patrician Leaders Who Transformed America (2002) by James MacGregor Burns ad Susan Dunn, p. 563 Variant: I could not at any age be content to take my place in a corner by the fireside and simply look on. I had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: "No good in a bed, but fine against a wall".

From a speech given at the White Shrine Club, Fresno, California, quoted in The Event Makers I’ve Known (2012) by Elvin C. Bell, p. 161. She is described as being in her late 70s, so c. 1960–1962 This Is My Story (1937)[ edit ] One's philosophy is not best expressed in words ; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In stopping to think through the meaning of what I have learned , there is much that I believe intensely, much I am unsure of. 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 . Up to a certain point it is good for us to know that there are people in the world who will give us love and unquestioned loyalty to the limit of their ability. I doubt, however, if it is good for us to feel assured of this without the accompanying obligation of having to justify this devotion by our behavior. The most important thing in any relationship is not what you get but what you give.

You Learn by Living (1960)[ edit ] Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility . One's philosophy is not best expressed in words ; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In stopping to think through the meaning of what I have learned , there is much that I believe intensely, much I am unsure of. 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 . Foreword (January 1960) One thing life has taught me: if you are interested, you never have to look for new interests. They come to you. … All you need to do is to be curious, receptive, eager for experience. And there's one strange thing: when you are genuinely interested in one thing, it will always lead to something else. p. 14 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 have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along." … You must do the thing you think you cannot do. p.

29–30 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 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 . p. 63 Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product. Paradoxically , the one sure way not to be happy is deliberately to map out a way of life in which one would please oneself completely and exclusively. p. 95 " Anxiety ," Kierkegaard said, "is the dizziness of freedom ." This freedom of which men speak , for which they fight , seems to some people a perilous thing. It has to be earned at a bitter cost and then — it has to be lived with. For 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 his own weight, this is a frightening prospect.

We must all face and unpalatable fact that we have, too often, a tendency to skim over; we proceed on the assumption that all men want freedom. This is not as true as we would like it to be. Many men and women who are far happier when they have relinquish their freedom, when someone else guides them, makes their decisions for them, takes the responsibility for them and their actions. They don't want to make up their minds. They don't want to stand on their own feet. p. 152 Her daily newspaper column : selections at PBS 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 . I have never felt that anything really mattered but the satisfaction of knowing that you stood for the things in which you believed and had done the very best you could. This is a time for action — not for war , but for mobilization of every bit of peace machinery. 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 .

We should begin in our own environment and in our own community as far as possible to build a peace-loving attitude and learn to discipline ourselves to accept, in the small things of our lives, mediation and arbitration . As long as we are not actually destroyed, we can work to gain greater understanding of other peoples and to try to present to the peoples of the world the values of our own beliefs. 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. (1 April 1939) I was one of those who was very happy when the original prohibition amendment passed. I thought innocently that a law in this country would automatically be complied with, and my own observation led me to feel rather ardently that the less strong liquor anyone consumed the better it was. During prohibition I observed the law meticulously, but I came gradually to see that laws are only observed with the consent of the individuals concerned and a moral change still depends on the individual and not on the passage of any law.

(14 July 1939) Little by little it dawned upon me that this law was not making people drink any less, but it was making hypocrites and law breakers of a great number of people. It seemed to me best to go back to the old situation in which, if a man or woman drank to excess, they were injuring themselves and their immediate family and friends and the act was a violation against their own sense of morality and no violation against the law of the land. (14 July 1939) Will people ever be wise enough to refuse to follow bad leaders or to take away the freedom of other people? (16 October 1939) No writing has any real value which is not the expression of genuine thought and feeling. (20 December 1939) 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. (23 February 1940) 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. (17 May 1940) Sometimes I wonder if we shall ever grow up in our politics and say definite things which mean something, or whether we shall always go on using generalities to which everyone can subscribe, and which mean very little. (1 July 1940) One should always sleep in all of one's guest beds, to make sure that they are comfortable. (11 September 1941) Long ago, I made up my mind that when things were said involving only me, I would pay no attention to them, except when valid criticism was carried by which I could profit. (14 January 1942) One of the blessings of age is to learn not to part on a note of sharpness, to treasure the moments spent with those we love, and to make them whenever possible good to remember, for time is short. (5 February 1943) 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.

(15 April 1943) 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. (11 May 1943) Only a man's character is the real criterion of worth. (22 August 1944) I have never felt that anything really mattered but the satisfaction of knowing that you stood for the things in which you believed and had done the very best you could. (8 November 1944) It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself. [1] [2] (15 June 1946) I have waited a while before saying anything about the Un-American Activities Committee's current investigation of the Hollywood film industry. I would not be very much surprised if some writers or actors or stagehands, or what not, were found to have Communist leanings, but I was surprised to find that, at the start of the inquiry, some of the big producers were so chicken-hearted about speaking up for the freedom of their industry.

One thing is 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. Certainly, the Thomas Committee is growing more ludicrous daily. (29 October 1947) 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. In a democratic country I do not think the public will tolerate a removal of its right to decide what it thinks of the ideas and performances of those who make the movie industry work. (29 October 1947) What is going on in the Un-American Activities Committee worries me primarily because little people have become frightened and we find ourselves living in the atmosphere of a police state, where people close doors before they state what they think or look over their shoulders apprehensively before they express an opinion. I have been one of those who have carried the fight for complete freedom of information in the United Nations.

And while accepting the fact that some of our press, our radio commentators, our prominent citizens and our movies may at times be blamed legitimately for things they have said and done, still I feel that the fundamental right of freedom of thought and expression is essential. If you curtail what the other fellow says and does, you curtail what you yourself may say and do. In our country we must trust the people to hear and see both the good and the bad and to choose the good. The Un-American Activities Committee seems to me to be better for a police state than for the USA. (29 October 1947) The mobilization of world opinion and methods of negotiation should be developed and used by every nation in order to strengthen the United Nations. Then if we are forced into war, it will be because there has been no way to prevent it through negotiation and the mobilization of world opinion. In which case we should have the voluntary support of many nations, which is far better than the decision of one nation alone, or even of a few nations. (16 April 1954) This is a time for action — not for war, but for mobilization of every bit of peace machinery.

It is also a time for facing the fact that you cannot use a weapon, even though it is the weapon that gives you greater strength than other nations, if it is so destructive that it practically wipes out large areas of land and great numbers of innocent people. (16 April 1954 ) 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. (5 November 1958) The arts in every field — music, drama, sculpture, painting — we can learn to appreciate and enjoy. We need not be artists, but we should be able to appreciate the work of artists. (5 November 1958) If man is to be liberated to enjoy more leisure, he must also be prepared to enjoy this leisure fully and creatively. For people to have more time to read, to take part in their civic obligations, to know more about how their government functions and who their officials are might mean in a democracy a great improvement in the democratic processes. Let's begin, then, to think how we can prepare old and young for these new opportunities.

Let's not wait until they come upon us suddenly and we have a crisis that we will be ill prepared to meet. (5 November 1958) In times past, the question usually asked by women was "How can we best help to defend our nation?" I cannot remember a time when the question on so many people's lips was "How can we prevent war?" 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. For many years war has been looked upon as almost inevitable in the solution of any question that has arisen between nations, and the nation that was strong enough to do so went about building up its defenses and its power to attack. It felt that it could count on these two things for safety. (20 December 1961) A consciousness of the fact that war means practically total destruction is the reason, I think, for the rising tide to prevent what seems such a senseless procedure. I understand that it is perhaps difficult for some people, whose lives have been lived with a sense of the need for military development, to envisage the possibility of being no longer needed.

But the average citizen is beginning to think more and more of the need to develop machinery to settle difficulties in the world without destruction or the use of atomic bombs. (20 December 1961) We should begin in our own environment and in our own community as far as possible to build a peace-loving attitude and learn to discipline ourselves to accept, in the small things of our lives, mediation and arbitration . As individuals, there is little that any of us can do to prevent an accidental use of bombs in the hands of those who already have them. We can register, however, with our government a firm protest against granting the knowledge and the use of these weapons to those who do not now have them. (20 December 1961) As long as we are not actually destroyed, we can work to gain greater understanding of other peoples and to try to present to the peoples of the world the values of our own beliefs. We can do this by demonstrating our conviction that human life is worth preserving and that we are willing to help others to enjoy benefits of our civilization just as we have enjoyed it.

(20 December 1961) Tomorrow Is Now (1963)[ edit ] What we must learn to do is to create unbreakable bonds between the sciences and the humanities. We cannot procrastinate. The world of the future is in our making. Tomorrow is now. We face the future fortified with the lessons we have learned from the past. It is today that we must create the world of the future. Spinoza , I think, pointed out that we ourselves can make experience valuable when, by imagination and reason, we turn it into foresight. p. xv Deliberately misattributed for comic effect in the opening of the film Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday. Not by Roosevelt, but from Steven Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (1989). Quotes about Roosevelt[ edit ] Eleanor Roosevelt, fine, precise, hand-worked like ivory. Her voice was almost attractive ...

One had the impression of a lady who was finally becoming a woman, which is to say that she was just a little bitchy about it all; nice bitchy, charming, it had a touch of art to it, but it made one wonder if she were not now satisfying the last passion of them all, which was to become physically attractive, for she was better-looking than she had ever been.

Question: Which US First Lady said, "No one can make you feel interior unless you consent?"
Answer: Eleanor Roosevelt