You Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life
One of the most admired people of the twentieth century, Eleanor Roosevelt remains a role model for a life well lived. At the age of seventy-six, just two years before her death, Roosevelt penned this simple guide toward a more fulfilling life. The commonsense ideas-and heartfelt ideals-presented in this volume are as relevant today as they were five decades ago. Her keys...more
Paperback, 224 pages
Published
May 1st 2009
by Westminster John Knox Press
(first published January 28th 1960)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
1,467)
In just 11 chapters, Eleanor shares with us her own interpretation of the basic philosophy of life. She believes that her basic philosophy is best expressed in the choices one makes daily. She discusses fear, a stumbling block, the great crippler, is something we all face. She stated "Looking back, it strikes me that my childhood and my early youth were one long battle against fear." She realized that "the danger lies in refusing to face the fear, in not daring to come to grips with it. If you f...more
Apr 03, 2008
Heather
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Any woman who would like to learn from an extraordinary woman.
I loved, loved, loved this book. I felt this book is a rare gem that few people know about. It was like listening to a wise grandma casting her pearls of wisdom that are still very applicable today. The thing I loved the most is that I think anyone could relate to Eleanor Roosevelt! She was an extraordinary woman, yet so ordinary(like you and me) at the same time.
This is one that I will definitely read again.
This is one that I will definitely read again.
I'm loving this short read by a fellow member of team Eleanor. It's filled with very sincere anecdotes from her life, largely in response to the letters she received asking for advice about life in general. There are some fantastic stories and pieces of advice that, though they come from someone two generations removed (or three?) the core of the message is timeless. There's one great story about "time wasters" that had me laughing out loud on the plane. Just when you think Eleanor is going to g...more
So interesting on so many different levels. The book serves as a self-help manual, a memoir, a textbook on good citizenship and how to become a public servant, a source of small meaningful stories and inspirational tidbits, and a historical document. Written at the end of her life, Eleanor Roosevelt embraced her role as Elder and Public Servant to write a book summarizing the greatest lessons of her life to share with others. In brief, make deliberate effort to overcome your fears, small and lar...more
It was a pretty good book & an easy read. Her 11 "rules" are logical and her explanation of them, plausible. They also stand the test of time! She was apparently a pioneer of the "Self-help movement." Although, I believe this would appall her…she was not a fan of psychiatry or therapy. Interestingly, all rules are still applicable to our world today.
Her style is a little dated...even if you didn't know WHO wrote it, you would know it was from a different generation and a different time peri...more
Her style is a little dated...even if you didn't know WHO wrote it, you would know it was from a different generation and a different time peri...more
Aug 12, 2010
Melissa Baggett
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Shelves:
feminism-women-s-studies,
success-literature
In this book, Eleanor Roosevelt outlines eleven actions that each person must take in order to lead a fulfilling life. They are as follows:
1. Learning to Learn--This first key makes the others possible. A fulfilled person must be curious and must learn to use his or her mind as a tool to understand and influence the world. Roosevelt insists that beyond discipline and training, a sense that life is an adventure makes people not only willing but passionate to learn about themselves, their fellow h...more
1. Learning to Learn--This first key makes the others possible. A fulfilled person must be curious and must learn to use his or her mind as a tool to understand and influence the world. Roosevelt insists that beyond discipline and training, a sense that life is an adventure makes people not only willing but passionate to learn about themselves, their fellow h...more
This book was ok. I didn't find it super life changing or anything. Its a pretty simple basic book, targets to the point where we should learn as much as we can, and face our fears, and try new things. Thats what I like about Eleanor Roosevelt. What I've read about her, it seems as if she was a shy girl, but as she got older, she wanted to learn as much as she could and do new things and stop being afraid of things. Basically she lived her life.
Now now. This is a very beautiful and mind-setting book. I totally swirled inside all of its words, and I admired every little notion she described. She spoke directly to the levels of my intellect, and evenly multiplied it. It's just wonderful. "To leave the world richer is ultimate success", and I believed that's just what I will strive for.
Thank you so much, and everyone should have a little sneak peek into this one.
Taymara.
Thank you so much, and everyone should have a little sneak peek into this one.
Taymara.
May 02, 2010
~mad
added it
I am not a history buff but I have all these biographies from my mother's collection so I picked one. This is a very interesting informative book - I learned quite a lot about the late 1880's until Eleanor died in the 60's. It dragged in the end - yet another political convention and anaysis of that. But I highly recommend for learning more about another time in our country. Life was so different! Give it a try! Seriously.....
The sage advice of Eleanor Roosevelt makes this book so worth the read. I would recommend it to anyone young or old who is interested in the wisdom she offers on eleven important area of life such as dealing with fear, maturity, readjustments in life, responsibility, being a good citizen and more.
For someone born after Eleanor Roosevelt's time, the book gave me wonderful insight into her beliefs and character, as well as her life. Written in 1960, just two years before she passed away, it is de...more
For someone born after Eleanor Roosevelt's time, the book gave me wonderful insight into her beliefs and character, as well as her life. Written in 1960, just two years before she passed away, it is de...more
This book had a lot of insights that overlapped with more recent advice/psychology books I've read, such as Gordon Livingston's Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart. It talkes about integrity, determination, and taking responsibility for yourself, and is remarkably currently for a book written in 1960 by someone born in 1884. I enjoyed the stories about her childhood and her husband, FDR.
Eleanor Roosevelt has a very chatty writing style that I found enjoyable to read. However, I wasn't so much into self improvement when I was reading the book, and did not make much progress. I was not able to renew it, so back it went. I might pick it up again later when improvement to self is a more interesting idea.
From an academic standpoint I would give this book a 3 stars. She is constantly stating her opinion as absolute statements--some of which I didn't entirely agree. She doesn't defend her opinions and sentiments very well sometimes and for that I just thought the academic aspects of the book were "okay".
From a personal standpoint, I thought the book was a 5 stars. Perhaps because the book is a little outdated, I felt like I was reading counsel from my grandmother. She is a moral person and speaks...more
From a personal standpoint, I thought the book was a 5 stars. Perhaps because the book is a little outdated, I felt like I was reading counsel from my grandmother. She is a moral person and speaks...more
Nov 19, 2012
Sarah
marked it as to-read
Reviewed this week in Brain Pickings:
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.ph...
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.ph...
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was an American political leader who used her influence as an active First Lady from 1933 to 1945 to promote the New Deal policies of her husband, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well as taking a prominent role as an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, she continued to be an internationally prominent author and speaker for the New Deal coalition...more
More about Eleanor Roosevelt...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“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.”
—
4,805 people liked it
“It's your life-but only if you make it so.”
—
200 people liked it
More quotes…

Loading...




























