WIST Quotations

Roosevelt, Eleanor -- Quoted in Dale Carnegie, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, ch. 21 (1948)

Dave — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 17:01:01 +0000

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.”

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Quoted in Dale Carnegie, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, ch. 21 (1948)
(Source)

I cannot find this in any of Roosevelt's written works or other primary sources. Carnegie wrote that Roosevelt told him this personally, and framed it as an extension of advice she'd received from Anna Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt's sister: "Never be bothered by what people say, as long as you know in your heart you are right."

From this Roosevelt has sometimes been credited with originating the phrase "Damned if you do and damned if you don't," though she set it in quotation marks to indicate she was quoting it. The saying was actually first written by evangelist Lorenzo Dow in 1836.

Fuller, Thomas (1654) -- Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 422 (1725)

Dave — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 13:50:10 +0000

Look as much into the Intention of him that praises thee, as of him that calumniates thee.

Thomas Fuller (1654–1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 422 (1725)
(Source)

Stevenson, Adlai -- Speech (1952-10-08), “The Area of Freedom,” University of Wisconsin, Madison

Dave — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 14:26:35 +0000

Disturbing things have taken place in our own land. The pillorying of the innocent has caused the wise to stammer and the timid to retreat. I would shudder for this country if I thought that we too must surrender to the sinister figure of the Inquisition, of the great accuser. I hope that the time will never come in America when charges are taken as the equivalent of facts, when suspicions are confused with certainties, and when the voice of the accuser stills every other voice in the land.

Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) American politician, diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-10-08), “The Area of Freedom,” University of Wisconsin, Madison
(Source)

La Rochefoucauld, Francois -- Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶37 (1665-1678) [tr. Heard (1917)]

Dave — Sat, 16 Mar 2024 20:46:15 +0000

Pride plays a greater part than kindness in our censure of a neighbor’s faults. We criticize faults less to correct them, than to prove that we do not possess them.

[L’orgueil a plus de part que la bonté aux remontrances que nous faisons à ceux qui commettent des fautes; et nous ne les reprenons pas tant pour les en corriger que pour leur persuader que nous en sommes exempts.]

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶37 (1665-1678) [tr. Heard (1917)]
(Source)

Present from the first edition. (Source (French)). Other translations:

We are liberal of our remonstrances and reprehensions towards those, whom we think guilty of miscarriages; but we therein betray more pride, than charity. Our reproving them does not so much proceed from any desire in us of their reformation, as from an insinuation that we our selves are not chargeable with the like faults.
[tr. Davies (1669), ¶142]

Pride hath a greater share than Goodness in the reproofs we give other people for their faults; and we chide them, not so much with a design to mend them, as to make them believe that we ourselves are not guilty of them.
[tr. Stanhope (1694), ¶38]

Pride is more concerned than benevolence in our remonstrances to persons guilty of faults; and we reprove them not so much with a design to correct, as to make them believe that we ourselves are free from such failings.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶349; ed. Lepoittevin-Lacroix (1797), ¶37]

In our reprehensions, pride has a greater share than good nature. We reprove, not so much in order to correct, as to intimate that we hold ourselves free from such failings.
[ed. Carville (1835), ¶309]

Pride has a greater share than goodness of heart in the remonstrances we make to those who are guilty of faults; we reprove not so much with a view to correct them as to persuade them that we are exempt from those faults ourselves.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶38]

Pride has a larger part than goodness in our remonstrances with those who commit faults, and we reprove them not so much to correct as to persuade them that we ourselves are free from faults.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871), ¶37]

Pride, rather than virtue, makes us reprove those who have done wrong; our reproaches are not so much intended to improve the evil-doer, as to show him that we are quite free of his taint.
[tr. FitzGibbon (1957), ¶37]

Pride plays a greater part than kindness in our remonstrating with those who make mistakes; and we point out their faults, less to correct them than to indicate they are not ours.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959), ¶37]

Pride plays a greater part than kindness in the reprimands we address to wrongdoers; we reprove them not so much to reform them as to make them believe that we are free from their faults.
[tr. Tancock (1959), ¶37]

Pride shares a greater part than the goodness of our hearts in the reprimands we give to those who commit faults; and we do not reprove so much in order to correct them, as in order to persuade them that we are ourselves exempt from those faults.
[tr. Whichello (2016), ¶37]

Colton, Charles Caleb -- Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 218 (1820)

Dave — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 17:04:08 +0000

There are two modes of establishing our reputation; to be praised by honest men, and to be abused by rogues. It is best, however, to secure the former, because it will be invariably accompanied by the latter.

Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780–1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 218 (1820)
(Source)