The encouraging thing is that every time you meet a situation, though you may think at the time it is an impossibility and you go through the tortures of the damned, once you have met it and lived through it you find that forever after you are freer than you ever were before. If you can live through that you can live through anything. 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 lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.” The danger lies in refusing to face the fear, in not daring to come to grips with it. If you fail anywhere along the line it will take away your confidence. You must make yourself succeed every time. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) First Lady of the US (1933-45), politician, diplomat, activist
You Learn by Living, ch. 2 “Fear — the Great Enemy” (1960)
    (Source)

This is the likely source for the misattribution of this Mary Schmich quotation to Roosevelt.

 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 3-Sep-22
Link to this post | 1 comment
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Roosevelt, Eleanor

1 thought on “<i>You Learn by Living</i>, ch. 2 “Fear — the Great Enemy” (1960)”

  1. Pingback: Schmich, Mary - “Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young,” Chicago Tribune (1 Jul 1997) | WIST

Thoughts? Comments? Corrections? Feedback?