Eleanor Roosevelt

"You are not obligated to set yourself on fire to keep other people warm."

"The only real failure in life is the failure to try."

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened."

"I have spent many years of my life in opposition, and I rather like the role."

"Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions."

"The greatest joy comes from helping others and making a difference in their lives."

"Do not wait for perfect conditions to begin; they will never come. Start now, even if only with small steps."

"Wisdom is not gained in years but in sincere efforts toward self-improvement."

"If you want to know what someone really believes, look at how they treat those who can offer them nothing."

"The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining, not when it is raining."

"Remember always that the composer, the poet, the sculptor, the painter, the architect seeks to express the spirit of the age."

"A day without laughter is a day wasted."

"Freedom means nothing unless it includes the freedom to displease."

"Sulking in my room, I discover that the world does not revolve around me and my unhappiness."

"Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us."

"The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it."

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time."

"Nature always wears the colors of the spirit and brings peace to troubled souls."

"I believe that all that we have and are is due to the infinite mercy of God, and I therefore believe that we have a solemn obligation."

"Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night."

"The battle for the individual rights of women is one of long duration and crueler than any physical warfare."

"Education should aim at destroying the desire to imitate and awaken the desire to create."

"If we believe in democracy, we must believe in the ability of people to govern themselves."

"War settles nothing when the passion and resentments, the hatreds and fears are left in the minds of men."

"You cannot spend your life beating your head against a stone wall trying to convince somebody of something they do not want to believe."

"The basis of world peace is the teaching which runs through almost all the great religions of the world: 'Love thy neighbor as thyself.'"

"Human beings have such a deep need to feel important and needed that we will do almost anything to receive attention."

"I never want to be the kind of woman who can keep the house in perfect order and never accomplish anything else."

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

"We are afraid of truth, afraid of fortune, afraid of death, and afraid of each other."