Best Eleanor Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 2

“I think Eleanor Roosevelt always had a most incredible comfort writing letters. I mean, she was in the habit of writing letters. And that's where she allowed her fantasies to flourish. That's where she allowed her emotions to really evolve. And that's where she allowed herself to express herself really fully, and sometimes whimsically, very often romantically. And it really starts with her letters to her father, who is lifelong her primary love.”

Thinking Writing Mean Sometimes Father Emotion Fantasy Habit Comfort Letters Incredibles Primaries Evolve Lifelong Eleanor

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“Well, the reality of her father was that he was a very diseased alcoholic, who died at the age of 34. And one always has to pause to wonder how much you have to drink to die at 34. And he was a really tragic father. I mean, he was absolutely unreliable. He was absolutely involved with various people. He had outside families, outside children, outside wives. He made his wife's life miserable. And she [Eleanor Roosevelt]ignored all of his faults and retained this sense of him as the perfect father.”

“It's interesting to me that really one of the first things she [Eleanor Roosevelt]did as First Lady was to collect her father's letters and publish a book called The Letters of My Father, essentially, hunting big game, The Letters of Elliott Roosevelt. And it really was an act of redemption, really one of her first acts of redemption as she entered the White House. She was going to redeem her father's honor. And publishing his letters, reconnecting with her childhood really fortified her to go on into the difficult White House years.”

Years Firsts Book Bigs Father Games House Difficult White Interesting Childhood Goes On Honor Letters Redemption White House Hunting Publishing Publish First Lady Eleanor Reconnecting

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“Well, when Eleanor Roosevelt's mother dies, she goes to live with her Grandmother Hall. And her Grandmother Hall is in mourning. She's in widow's weeds. She's in her 50s, but appears very old. And she's exhausted from raising rather out-of-control children. Her favorite daughter, Anna, has died (Eleanor's mother), and she has living at home two other sons, Vallie and Eddie. And they are incredible sportsmen, incredible drinkers, out-of-control alcoholics.”

Wells Children Two Home Mother Dies Son Daughter Died Incredibles Mourning Grandmother Halls Weed Exhausted Alcoholics Widows Anna Drinkers Eleanor Sportsman

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“And Grandmother Hall really imagines that she can raise Eleanor and her two brothers differently than these children were raised. And if she is very strict and everything is very regimented and ordered and disciplined, that they will become the perfect children who her own children did not become.”

Ifs Children Two Perfect Imagine Brother Raises Raised Grandmother Halls Imagine That Strict Eleanor Two Brothers Perfect Child

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“In one way, it is this sense of order and also love that, I think, really saved Eleanor Roosevelt's life. And in her own writing, she's very warm about her grandmother, even though, if you look at contemporary accounts, they're accounts of horror at the Dickensian scene that Tivoli represents: bleak and drear and dark and unhappy. But Eleanor Roosevelt in her own writings is not very unhappy about Tivoli.”

Ifs Thinking Way Writing Looks Order Dark Horror Scene Accounts Warm Saved Unhappy Contemporary One Way Grandmother Bleak Eleanor

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“I think her Grandmother Hall gave her a great sense of family love, and reassurance. Her grandmother did love her, like her father, unconditionally. And despite the order and the discipline - and home at certain hours and out at certain hours and reading at certain hours - there was a surprising amount of freedom. Eleanor Roosevelt talks about how the happiest moments of her days were when she would take a book out of the library, which wasn't censored.”

Thinking Book Moments Home Certain Order Reading Father Hours Amount Discipline Library Despite Grandmother Halls Surprising Family Love Like Her Reassurance Eleanor Censored

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“And her [Eleanor Roosevelt] Grandmother Hall provided her really with a quite wonderful education, and a freedom that, within the framework of Tivoli (which is a framework of discipline and order) is also a very encouraging and loving one.”

Order Wonderful Discipline Grandmother Halls Framework Eleanor

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“I think Eleanor Roosevelt's so popular at Allenswood because it's the first time she is, number one, free. But it's the first time somebody really recognizes her own leadership abilities and her own scholarly abilities.”

Thinking Firsts Ability Numbers First Time Eleanor Scholarly

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“Eleanor Roosevelt loved to write. She was a wonderful child writer. I mean, she wrote beautiful essays and stories as a child. And Marie Souvestre really appreciated Eleanor Roosevelt's talents and encouraged her talents. Also, she spoke perfect French. She grew up speaking French. She's now at a french-speaking school where, you know, girls are coming from all over the world. Not everybody speaks French.”

“Eleanor Roosevelt's very helpful to a lot of children who cannot speak French, who do not write well. And Marie Souvestre is fierce. She tears up students' papers that are not, you know, perfect. And Eleanor Roosevelt goes around, again, being incredibly helpful to children in need, children in trouble. And her best friends are the naughtiest girls who are in trouble. And she is a leader. And she is encouraged to be a leader. And everybody falls in love with her. She's a star.”

Knows Needs Writing Wells Children Fall Girl Speak Stars Perfect Leader Trouble Students Tears Paper Falling In Love Helpful Fierce Papers Eleanor Marie Speaks French

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“And she [Eleanor Roosevelt]loves being a star. And she loves being a teacher and a leader and a mentor and a big friend. Also, she's tall. She's one of the tallest girls in the school. And she's an athlete. And she writes many years later, at the end of her life, she writes that the happiest day, the happiest single day of her life was the day that she made the first team at field hockey. And I have to say, as a biographer, that's the most important fact. I”

Writing Years Firsts Made Important Ends Facts Bigs School Girl Stars Love Is Leader Teacher Team Fields Athlete Tall Hockey Mentor Eleanor Being A Teacher Biographers Field Hockey

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“I mean, if you pause over what it means at the age of 76 that Eleanor Roosevelt wrote, the happiest single day of her life was the day she made the first team at field hockey. Field hockey is a team sport. Field hockey is a knockabout - I mean, picture Allenswood, the swamps of north London. It's a messy sport. So she really enjoyed playing this rough-and-tumble sport in the mud of Allenswood, a team sport. And she was very competitive. And she loved being competitive, and she loved to win. And that, I think, was all of the things that Allenswood enabled.”

Ifs Thinking Firsts Mean Made Age Winning Sports Team Fields London Enjoyed Rough Hockey Pauses Mud Messy Swamps Eleanor Sports Team Field Hockey

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“I think FDR was very dashing and charming and debonair, and probably reminded her of her father. A great bon-vivant. He loved to party. He loved to sing. He loved to have fun. And he wrote beautiful letters, just as her father did, which - alas and alack - Eleanor Roosevelt destroyed. But she refers to his beautiful letters. And she was charmed by him.”

Thinking Beautiful Father Fun Party Letters Destroyed Having Fun Charming Alas Eleanor Charmed Dashing Debonair

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“Well, in Washington, this is a very hard time for Eleanor and Franklin. This is when Lucy Mercer first appears. And Lucy Mercer is Eleanor Roosevelt's own secretary. Very beautiful young woman, not unlike Eleanor Roosevelt: tall, blonde, thick haired. And FDR is having an affair with her, which Eleanor Roosevelt finds out when FDR returns from Europe in 1918 with the famous flu of 1918.”

Firsts Wells Hard Beautiful Young Return Europe Affair Hard Times Tall Thick Secretary Young Women Flu Blonde Franklin Very Beautiful Lucy Eleanor

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“And if you look at pictures of Eleanor between 1918 and 1921, she becomes anorexic. She really loses a tremendous amount of weight. That's when her teeth really go bad. It's a terrible, terrible time for her. And she has five children, ranging in age from three to 10. It's an emotionally terrible ordeal.”

Ifs Looks Children Age Three Loses Five Amount Terrible Weight Teeth Eleanor Ordeals Anorexics Terrible Times

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“But it's also the beginning of another level of liberation for her]Eleanor Roosevelt], because when she returns to New York, she gets very involved in a new level of politics. She meets Esther Lape and Elizabeth Read, and becomes very involved in the women's movement, and then in the peace movement. And ironically, the years of her greatest despair become also the years of her great liberation.”

Years Levels New York Movement Return Involved Despair Liberation Eleanor Esther

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“It's right around this time that her Grandmother Hall dies. And Eleanor Roosevelt is responsible for making all the funeral arrangements. And there are a couple of things that she really understands, as she contemplates her grandmother's life and makes the funeral arrangements. One, she's really talented, an organizational woman. She knows how to do things. She begins to compare her life to her grandmother's life. And it's very clear to her that being a devoted wife and a devoted mother is not enough.”

Knows Enough Mother Dies Know How Clear Wife Couple Responsible Compare Grandmother Halls Funeral Contemplating Devoted Arrangements Eleanor Organizational

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“She [Eleanor Roosevelt]wants a life of her own. Her grandmother could have been a painter. Her grandmother could have done so much more than she did with her life. And Eleanor Roosevelt decides she is going to do everything possible with her life. She's going to live a full life.”

Want Has Beens Done Painter Grandmother Could Have Been Eleanor Full Life

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“A lot of people say that Eleanor Roosevelt wasn't a good mother. And there are two pieces to that story. One is, when they were very young, she was not a good mother. She was an unhappy mother. She was an unhappy wife. She had never known what it was to be a good mother. She didn't have a good mother of her own. And so there's a kind of parenting that doesn't happen.”

People Kind Two Stories Happens Young Mother Known Pieces Wife Unhappy Eleanor Good Mother

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“And in the same way, FDR's not much of a father. Although the children in all their memoirs really talk about what a fun-loving guy Dad was, and how brooding and unhappy Mom was. The children sort of blame it all on the mother. Well, this is kind of standard and typical, and aggrieved Eleanor Roosevelt that she was not a happier mother. She wanted to be a happier mother. And I must say, she was a happier grandmother.”

Way Wells Kind Children Wanted Mother Guy Father Fun Mom Dad Standards Blame Unhappy Memoir Grandmother Typical Brooding Eleanor Fun Loving

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“I mean, in the campaign of '24 and in '28 and '32, you know, Eleanor Roosevelt insists that women have equal floor space. And this is a great victory over time. Then she wants women represented in equal numbers as men. And she wants the women to name the delegates. And the men want to name the delegates. Well, Eleanor is absolutely furious. And because they don't want her to walk away in 1924, she wins. And this is a great political victory. She has floor space equal to the men, and she has the right to name the women.”

Knows Men Want Wells Mean Political Winning Names Space Walks Numbers He Man Victory Equal Campaigns Furious Delegates Eleanor Great Victory Great Political Political Victory

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“So in 1924, Eleanor Roosevelt really gets a sense of what the limits of the battle and the contours of the battle are going to be. The men are contemptuous of the women, and the women really need to organize. She writes an article which becomes an article she writes in different ways over and over and over again: Women need to organize. They need to create their own bosses. They need to have support networks and gangs so that they are a force.”

Men Way Needs Writing Different Force Support He Man Battle Limits Different Ways Boss Articles Organize Gang Eleanor Contemptuous

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“Politics is not an isolated, individualist adventure. Women really need to emerge as a power to be the countervailing power to the men. And Eleanor Roosevelt's really the dynamo and the spearhead of that effort.”

Men Needs Effort He Man Adventure Isolated Eleanor

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“I think that Hick was in love with Eleanor, and Eleanor was in love with Hick. I think it's very important to look at the letters that are in my book, because unlike some of the recent published letters, I have both the personal and the political. And their relationship is about ardor. It's about fun. And it's also about politics.”

Thinking Looks Important Book Political Fun Letters Eleanor Ardor Hicks

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“She really is a completely different First Lady. Eleanor Roosevelt was not going to suffer and withdraw in the White House. And I think he's a very different President. He does not want his wife to suffer and withdraw in the White House. And they really are partners. They're partners in a big house where there are two separate courts, and they both know they have two separate courts. But these are courts that are allied in purpose, united in vision.”

Thinking Knows Want Firsts Doe Two Different Bigs Purpose Suffering House President White United Vision Wife Court Partners White House First Lady Eleanor Big Houses

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“Eleanor Roosevelt doesn't ever do anything that is going to hurt her husband. She tries things out on him. She gets permission to do things. The amazing thing, I think, historically, is that he says, "Go do it. If you can make this happen, I'll follow you."”

Ifs Thinking Trying Happens Hurt Husband Permission Amazing Things Eleanor

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“And you can really see in all of these issues that are priorities for Eleanor Roosevelt, where the compromises are painful, the compromises are hard, and the difficulties between them really begin to loom very large by 1936, by 1938.”

Hard Issues Difficulty Painful Priorities Compromise Eleanor

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“Eleanor Roosevelt fights for an anti-lynch law with the NAACP, with Walter White and Mary McLeod Bethune. And she begs FDR to say one word, say one word to prevent a filibuster or to end a filibuster. From '34 to '35 to '36 to '37 to '38, it comes up again and again, and FDR doesn't say one word. And the correspondence between them that we have, I mean, she says, "I cannot believe you're not going to say one word." And she writes to Walter White, "I've asked FDR to say one word. Perhaps he will." But he doesn't. And these become very bitter disagreements.”

Writing Believe Mean Ends Law Fighting White Come Up Bitter Mary Again And Again One Word Disagreement Correspondence Eleanor Naacp Filibuster Walter White

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“On international relations, Eleanor Roosevelt really takes a great shocking leadership position on the World Court. In fact, it amuses me. The very first entry in her FBI file begins in 1924, when Eleanor Roosevelt supports American's entrance into the World Court. And the World Court comes up again and again - '33, '35. In 1935, Eleanor Roosevelt goes on the air; she writes columns; she broadcast three, four times to say the US must join the World Court.”

“By 1938, Eleanor Roosevelt was so angry at FDR's policies, she writes a book called This Troubled World. And it is actually a point-by-point rebuttal of her husband's foreign policy. We need collective security. We need a World Court. We need something like the League of Nations. We need to work together to fight fascism. We need embargoes against aggressor nations, and we need to name aggressor nations. All of which is a direct contradiction of FDR's policies.”

“So she [Eleanor Roosevelt] is an amazing First Lady. What other First Lady in U.S. history has ever written a book to criticize her husband's policies?”

Firsts Book Written Policy Husband Criticize First Lady Eleanor

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“One of the things for me, as a biographer, that is so significant is for Eleanor Roosevelt - the child who never had a home of her own, who lives in her grandmother's home and then goes to school and then gets married and lives in her mother-in-law's homes, and then in public housing (like the White House and the State House) - housing becomes for Eleanor Roosevelt the most important issue.”

“I think that Eleanor Roosevelt really learned about the limits of power and influence from Arthurdale. She could not make some things happen. And she particularly learned that she could not, just because she was nominally in charge, she could not change people's hearts and minds; that a very long process of education would result before race was on the national agenda. And it really did move her into the racial justice arena with both feet. She came out fighting.”

People Thinking Mind Heart Long Happens Moving Fighting Process Justice Results Race Feet Influence Limits Things Happen Agendas Heart And Mind Arena Eleanor Racial Justice

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“I came upon a telegram from Eleanor Roosevelt herself to Gypsy Rose Lee that read, 'May your bare ass always be shining'. That was the clincher; I had to write about this woman.”

Writing May Shining Rose Ass Gypsy Eleanor Telegrams

Author:Karen Abbott

“There were always jokes about Hillary Clinton channeling Eleanor Roosevelt, but Eleanor Roosevelt was really instrumental at the UN, and would want to meet with various other delegates.”

Want Jokes Clinton Various Channeling Delegates Eleanor

Author:Madeleine Albright

“Gloria Steinem in the women's movement. Eleanor Smeal of the Feminist Majority. There are all of these great wonderful women I've met that are so inspirational.”

Wonderful Movement Mets Majority Feminist Eleanor Gloria Wonderful Woman

Author:Dolores Huerta

“What was really great with Eleanor Roosevelt - I mean, of course, we all have this stereotypical, really satirical almost, version of how she speaks. What was really interesting to me was I found various radio and TV appearances of hers, but there was one talk show that I saw her on; she was the only woman, it was all men. They were talking about policy - I think it was after she was First Lady. I think it was more in the U.N. days.”

“Eleanor Roosevelt was painfully shy, painfully shy. So she overcompensated. In the same way that Nancy Reagan felt unattractive and unlovable and so everything had to be - hair had to be perfect, and the makeup and the clothes. Because she thought, "They don't think I'm pretty."”

Thinking Way Felt Perfect Hair Clothes Shy Makeup Nancy Unattractive Eleanor Unlovable

Author:Cynthia Nixon

“[John] McCain references favorite presidents like Teddy Roosevelt. Hillary cited Eleanor Roosevelt.”

President Mccain Teddy Eleanor

Author:Paul Kengor

“Eleanor Roosevelt could easily have told negroes the deceitful maneuvering of the United States government that was going on behind the scenes. She never did it. In my opinion she was just another white woman whose profession was to make it appear that she was on the negro's side. You have a lot of whites who are in this category. Therefore, they have made negro loving a profession.”

Made States Government Sides White United Behinds Opinion United States Scene Profession Categories State Government Behind The Scenes Eleanor Deceitful United States Government

Author:Malcolm X

“Eleanor Roosevelt is a political force of enormous ambitions. I believe she is a menace, unscrupulous as to truth, vain and cynical - all with a pretense of exaggerated kindness and human feeling which deceives millions of gullible persons.”

Believe Humans Persons Feelings Political Force I Believe Kindness Millions Ambition Enormous Vain Cynical Deceiving Pretense Exaggerated Menace Eleanor Gullible

Author:Westbrook Pegler

“I think the most important thing I wanted to say at various times to Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt was that it seemed so sad to me that - I really believe they loved each other and had a great deal of affection - but because of that early hurt in their marriage, there was a certain kind of distance from then on, until their deaths actually. So at times, I just wanted to push them together and say, "Come on, you guys! I know you love each other. This is crazy!"”

Thinking Knows Believe Kind Important Wanted Together Guy Certain Hurt Deals Crazy Important Things Distance Affection Various Love Each Other Franklin Eleanor So Sad

Author:Doris Kearns Goodwin

“"Baby, you know?" my mother once said to me. "I think you're the greatest woman I've ever met - and I'm not including my mother or Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt in that." She said, "You are very intelligent and you're very kind, and those two qualities do not often go together." Then she went across the street and got in her car, and I went the other way down to the streetcar. I thought, "Suppose she's right. She's intelligent - and she's too mean to lie." You see, a parent has the chance - and maybe the responsibility - to liberate her child. And my mom had liberated me when I was 17.”

Thinking Knows Way Kind Mean Children Said Two Together Lying Mother Parent Chance Quality Responsibility Streets Car Baby Mom Mets Intelligent Including My Mom Liberated Eleanor

Author:Maya Angelou

“I'd like to ask Eleanor Roosevelt what she regrets most, because I think that might reveal something that I didn't catch on to while I was writing my book and, hopefully, that would start a conversation.”

Thinking Writing Book Regret Hopefully Eleanor

Author:Russell Freedman

“The library of my elementary school had this great biography section, and I read all of these paperback biographies until they were dog-eared. The story of Eleanor Roosevelt and Madame Curie and Martin Luther King and George Washington Carver and on and on and on.”

Stories School Dog Kings Library Biographies Sections Luther Elementary School Eleanor Biographers Carver My Biography Madame Curie Reading Biographies

Author:Christine Quinn

“The bible says no man can take your joy. That means no person can make you live with a negative attitude. No circumstance, no adversity can force you to live in despair. As Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of wheelchair-bound President Franklin D. Roosevelt, often said, ‘No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

“When Eleanor's arm touched his he felt his hands grow cold with deadly fear lest he should lose the shadow brush with which his imagination was painting wonders of her. He watched her from the corners of his eyes as ever he did when he walked with her-- she was a feast and a folly and he wished it had been his destiny to sit forever on a haystack and see life through her green eyes.”

Should Hands Eye Grows Felt Loses Imagination Wonder Destiny Forever Painting Arms Cold Shadow Green Corners His Eyes Folly Touched Brushes Eleanor Green Eyes

Book:This Side of Paradise

Source: This Side of Paradise

“Eleanor went to her room "where she was free to think and be wretched.”

Thinking Rooms Wretched Eleanor

Author:Jane Austen

“Yes Leopold," Eleanor said in a low, mocking voice. "Do start to shine, please. I think I saw the rising, but I definitely missed the shining.”

Thinking Said Voice Saws Please Lows Shining Rising Eleanor

Author:Eloisa James

Eleanor Quotes

Related topics

Eleanor Quotes