Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one… — Eleanor Roosevelt · Smartyfair

Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.

Eleanor Roosevelt1884–1962 · activist · 1900s USAEleanor Roosevelt was a First Lady of the United States — and niece of President Theodore Roosevelt — who became a powerful voice for human rights.9 quotes

Source not found yetIndividuality1900sFriendship

In plain words

Being a friend to yourself is what lets you be a friend to anyone else.

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Where these words come from

How sure this is: 45% sureLots of sources credit Eleanor Roosevelt with this, and they agree with each other. The book or the speech it first came from hasn't turned up yet.
What turned up: Attributed to You Learn by Living (1960); consistent multi-source (non-aggregator-exclusive) attribution to this specific book, but archive.org's only two scans of the book are both now pulled ('item not available'), so primary verbatim confirmation remains impossible.
Sources checked: goodreads.comChecked using claude-sonnet-5, 20 August 2026widely circulated but unsourced on this page
archive.orgChecked using claude-fable-5, 21 August 2026You Learn by Living scan (1961 printing) is back on archive.org but lending-restricted; page-check pending a loan session. Caution: Wikiquote sources the line to Maggio's 1992 quotation compilation, not to a page of the 1960 book.

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More from Eleanor Roosevelt

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.

Eleanor Roosevelt No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

Eleanor Roosevelt One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes.

Eleanor Roosevelt In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves.

Eleanor Roosevelt One thing life has taught me: if you are interested, you never have to look for new interests.

Eleanor Roosevelt We must know what we think and speak out, even at the risk of unpopularity.

Eleanor Roosevelt

More on individuality

I give an expression of care every day to each child to help him realize that he is unique.

Fred Rogers It takes a village to raise a child.African proverb To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.

Oscar Wilde Not all who wander are lost.

J.R.R. Tolkien 'Know thyself' was written over the portal of the antique world. Over the portal of the new world, 'Be thyself' shall be written.

Oscar Wilde We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds.

Ralph Waldo Emerson