I have been re-reading one of my favorite Eleanor Roosevelt biographies, Leadership the Eleanor Roosevelt Way, and seriously, this woman rocked!  Hence, I see her as a great choice with whom to kick off Women’s History Month (after my mom, of course)!

I am not going to even begin to think that I can do her justice here, in a little ol’ blog post.  What I am going to do is point you over to her page on Wikipedia.  First, however, I am going to list only some of the many great things she is quoted as having said.  Enjoy!

• Courage is more exhilarating than fear, and in the long run, it is easier.  We do not have to become heroes overnight.  Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down.
• Do what you feel in your heart to be right- for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.
• Friendship with one’s self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.
• I you have something to say, you can say it.
• I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.
• In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.
• It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.
• One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes… and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.
• People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.
• Readjustment is a kind of private revolution.
• Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.
• The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
• We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face… we must do that which we think we cannot.
• What matters now, as always, is not what we can’t do:  it is what we can and must do.
• When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?
• When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.
• Work is easier to carry when your heart is involved.
• Women are like tea bags – you can’t tell how strong they are until you put them in hot water.
• Women, whether subtly or vociferously, have always been a tremendous power in the destiny of the world.