Roosevelt argues that complete security is an illusion because uncertainty has always been part of human life. People cannot know exactly what circumstances, opportunities or difficulties they will encounter. Her point is not that risk should be ignored, but that the absence of certainty should not by itself prevent people from acting or moving forward.

The second part of the quotation gives uncertainty a positive dimension. Roosevelt suggests that unpredictability is part of what gives life its variety and interest. A completely foreseeable existence would remove much of the possibility for discovery, challenge and change. In the wider passage, she connects this idea with people who hesitate before entering an unknown future. The quotation therefore presents uncertainty as a normal condition of life and implies that courage involves accepting some degree of risk rather than waiting for guarantees that may never exist.

Full quotation

“I would have them go back and read Bradford’s reply to the people who hesitated in Holland before risking the great adventure into the unknown of the Plymouth colonists. The answer, of course, is that there never has been safety. There never has been security. No man has ever known what he would meet around the next corner; if life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.”