Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume 1 Quotes

“And the purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.”
― Blanche Wiesen Cook, Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume 1: The Early Years, 1884-1933

“You cannot take anything personally. You cannot bear grudges. You must finish the day’s work when the day’s work is done. You cannot get discouraged too easily. You have to take defeat over and over again, and pick up and go on. Be sure of your facts. Argue the other side with a friend until you have found the answer to every point which might be brought up against you. Women who are willing to be leaders must stand out and be shot at. More and more they are going to do it, and more and more they should do it.”
― Blanche Wiesen Cook, Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume I, 1884-1933

“And even when success comes, as I am sure it will, bear in mind that there are more quiet and enviable joys than to be among the most sought after women at a ball...”
― Blanche Wiesen Cook, Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume 1: The Early Years, 1884-1933

“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home—so close and so small they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual persons; the neighborhood …; the school or college …; the factory, farm or office…. Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.”
― Blanche Wiesen Cook, Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume I, 1884-1933

“Bolstered by the Espionage Act of 15 June 1917 and the Sedition Act of 16 May 1918, Palmer’s agents were free to arrest all who gave aid or comfort to the enemy; all who seemed disloyal in word or deed or attitude; all who opposed the draft or who spoke ill of the president, his advisers, the government, or the military. “Scurrilous” or “abusive” newspapers or journals were denied U.S. mailing privileges. People were arrested”
― Blanche Wiesen Cook, Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume I, 1884-1933