Update
Show Summary Details

Page of

PRINTED FROM OXFORD REFERENCE (www.oxfordreference.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2023. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single entry from a reference work in OR for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

date: 15 June 2025

Eleanor Roosevelt 1884–1962
American humanitarian and diplomat 

  1. 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.
    Eleanor Roosevelt's My Day: Her Acclaimed Columns 1936–1945 (1989)
  2. Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product.
    You Learn by Living (1961) ch. 6
  3. Is there anything we can do for you? For you are the one in trouble now.
    to Harry Truman, who became President on the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt
    in conversation, 12 April 1945
  4. I cannot believe that war is the best solution. No one won the last war, and no one will win the next war.
    letter to Harry Truman, 22 March 1948
  5. Where after all, do human rights begin? In small places, close to home.
    address to United Nations General Assembly, Paris, 10 December 1948
  6. When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.
    letter to Mr Horne, 19 February 1960; Joseph P. Lash Eleanor: The Years Alone (1973)
  7. No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
    in Catholic Digest August 1960