This quotation is widely attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, but no reliable primary source has been identified showing that she wrote or said these exact words. Searches of her published and archived writings have not established the quotation’s origin. The wording was attributed to Roosevelt in print by 1940, without a supporting source, and may have developed from documented remarks she made in 1935 about people being made to feel inferior.

Taken on its own terms, the quotation suggests that another person’s judgement does not automatically determine one’s sense of personal worth. Insults or condescension may attempt to establish superiority, but an individual can question the authority of such judgements. This does not mean that humiliation, discrimination or mistreatment have no real effects. Rather, the statement distinguishes between external judgement and an internal sense of dignity, emphasising the degree of personal agency that may remain in deciding whose opinions are accepted as measures of one’s worth.