What timely pieces of advice help you navigate through life?
Somewhere in my reading this past year, I learned that Eleanor Roosevelt was a prolific writer. Then I discovered this collection, edited by Mary Jo Binker, from Eleanor Roosevelt’s advice column, If You Ask Me, beginning in 1941 for Ladies Home Journal. Her nearly 78-year-old guidance seems just as fresh and relevant today as it was then.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Eleanor’s words, along with the Foreword to the book from her granddaughter, Nancy Roosevelt Ireland.
Below are a few pieces of Eleanor Roosevelt’s wisdom that emerged as strong advice for living life today.
Timely Pieces of Advice
- If you feel something is wrong, try to stand up for what you believe is right. (October 1944)
- If we believe in religious teaching and in real democracy, we shall give equal respect to human beings, and equal opportunity to live freely and participate in community life to every human being. (July 1941)
- It is the person and not the sex which counts. (January 1942)
- Governments do not become corrupt unless their citizens have allowed low standards to exist. (July 1951)
- Failures come to all people. (February 1960)
- Religion to me is simply the conviction that all human beings must hold some belief in a Power greater than themselves, and that whatever their religious belief may be, it must move them to live better in this world and to approach whatever the future holds with serenity. (October 1941)
- My greatest fear has always been that I would be afraid – afraid physically or mentally or morally – and allow myself to be influenced by fear instead of by my honest convictions. (August 1942)
- A successful life seems to me to lie in the knowledge that one has developed to the limit the capacities with which one was endowed. (October 1946)
- You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give. (October 1953)
- If you face life with a spirit of adventure and with courage, you will get more out of it than if you are timid and unimaginative. (December 1952)
Standing up for what is right, equal respect, equal opportunity, meeting life with courage, and facing life with a spirit of adventure are just a few kernels of wisdom that seem relevant today.
What do you think?
What timely pieces of advice help you navigate through life?
I welcome your comments.
Jeanette Marquardt says
I totally agree with the 10 Timely Pieces of Advice that you so eloquently stated.
Denise Pyles says
Thank you Jeanette for your comments. Glad you enjoyed the article and the advice.