She's born as Anna Eleanor Roosevelt to Anna Hall and Elliott Roosevelt on October 11, 1884. Her father was the younger brother of then President Theodore Roosevelt.
Eleanor Roosevelt was married to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a distant cousin in 1905.
For many years, she dedicated her life to her beloved husband's purposes, becoming his political helpmate, and tending to him tirelessly when he was stricken with poliomyelitis in 1921.
She transformed the role of the First Lady radically when she came into the White House in 1933. In her daily syndicated newspaper column, "My Day", Mrs Roosevelt expressed her opinions with much candor. Her integrity, her sincerity and her graciousness won many hearts. She continued to devote herself to President Franklin Roosevelt's causes until the President's in 1945.
It's easy to understand what makes Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt one of the most-loved women of her generation. Savor each of these Eleanor Roosevelt quotes and you'll quickly see why.
A little simplification would be the first step toward rational living, I think.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
A woman is like a tea bag- you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
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.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
Friendship with ones self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
I have learned long ago to possess my soul in patience and accept the inevitable.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
I would not be happy unless I had some regular work to do every day and I imagine that I will always feel that way no matter how old I am...
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
If someone betrays you once, it’s their fault; if they betray you twice, it’s your fault.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
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.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
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.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
My life can be so arranged that I can live on whatever I have. If I cannot live as I have lived in the past, I shall live differently, and living differently does not mean living with less attention to the things that make life gracious and pleasant or with less enjoyment of things of the mind.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
One thing life has taught me: if you are interested, you never have to look for new interests. They come to you. When you are genuinely interested in one thing, it will always lead to something else.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
So I took an interest in politics, but I don't know whether I enjoyed it! 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.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
The giving of love is an education in itself.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
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.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
There are practical little things in housekeeping which no man really understands...
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
What is to give light must endure the burning.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
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.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
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.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
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