Looking for the best and inspirational Mr. Rogers quotes?
Fred Rogers has been a beloved icon for children for decades. His show, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, was the longest-running children’s television program in history, and even now the show still holds an important place in our culture.
On March 20th, 1928, he was born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and raised in Latrobe, Columbia Township, and later Sewickley Township near Pittsburgh. He earned his Bachelor of Music at Dartmouth College in 1951 and his Master of Arts degrees in 1954 from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He was ordained as a minister in the United Church of Christ denomination the same year he obtained his master’s degree.
Though Rogers passed away in 2003, he left an indelible mark on American culture and continues to do so today. His show is still airing on PBS daily, and it has been widely praised by critics and loved by millions of people who grew up watching it.
Get inspired by his powerful quotes – they’re guaranteed to make you feel stronger & more resilient in the face of challenges.
65 Inspiring Mr. Rogers Quotes
“Love and success, always in that order. It’s that simple AND that difficult.”
“You can’t really love someone else unless you really love yourself first.”
“There are times when explanations, no matter how reasonable, just don’t seem to help.”
“When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting and less scary.”
“You rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you need to make choices. And hopefully, your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are.”
“All of us, at some time or other, need help. Whether we’re giving or receiving help, each one of us has something valuable to bring to this world. That’s one of the things that connects us as neighbors—in our own way, each one of us is a giver and a receiver.”
“We all have different gifts, so we all have different ways of saying to the world who we are.”
“Often, problems are knots with many strands, and looking at those strands can make a problem seem different.”
“There’s a world of difference between insisting on someone’s doing something and establishing an atmosphere in which that person can grow into wanting to do it.”
“Whatever we choose to imagine can be as private as we want it to be. Nobody knows what you’re thinking or feeling unless you share it.”
“I think of discipline as the continual everyday process of helping a child learn self-discipline.”
“There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind.”
“Children’s play is not just kids’ stuff. Children’s play is rather the stuff of most future inventions.”
“One of the greatest gifts you can give anybody is the gift of your honest self. I also believe that kids can spot a phony a mile away.”
“There are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.”
“Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.”
“Imagining something may be the first step in making it happen, but it takes the real time and real efforts of real people to learn things, make things, turn thoughts into deeds or visions into inventions.”
“We speak with more than our mouths. We listen with more than our ears.”
“The greatest gift you ever give is your honest self.”
“I don’t think anyone can grow unless he’s loved exactly as he is now, appreciated for what he is rather than what he will be.”
“There is no normal life that is free of pain. It’s the very wrestling with our problems that can be the impetus for our growth.”
“Peace means far more than the opposite of war.”
“Discovering the truth about ourselves is a lifetime’s work, but it’s worth the effort.”
“I hope you’re proud of yourself for the times you’ve said “yes,“ when all it meant was extra work for you and was seemingly helpful only to someone else.”
“Listening is where love begins: listening to ourselves and then to our neighbors.”
“There’s a part of all of us that longs to know that even what’s weakest about us is still redeemable and can ultimately count for something good.”
“It’s good to be curious about many things.”
“I hope you’re proud of yourself for the times you’ve said ‘yes,’ when all it meant was extra work for you and was seemingly helpful only to someone else.”
“You are special. You’re special to me. There’s only one in this wonderful world.”
“Imagine what our real neighborhoods would be like if each of us offered, as a matter of course, just one kind word to another person.”
“You can think about things and make believe. All you have to do is think and they’ll grow.”
“The thing I remember best about successful people I’ve met all through the years is their obvious delight in what they’re doing and it seems to have very little to do with worldly success. They just love what they’re doing, and they love it in front of others.”
“I don’t think anyone can grow unless he’s loved exactly as he is now, appreciated for what he is rather than what he will be.”
“Anyone who does anything to help a child in his life is a hero.”
“How many times have you noticed that it’s the little quiet moments in the midst of life that seem to give the rest extra-special meaning?”
“Who you are inside is what helps you make and do everything in life.”
“I feel so strongly that deep and simple is far more essential than shallow and complex.”
“Even though no human being is perfect, we always have the chance to bring what’s unique about us to life in a redeeming way.”
“Often out of periods of losing come the greatest strivings toward a new winning streak.”
“From the time you were very little, you’ve had people who have smiled you into smiling, people who have talked you into talking, sung you into singing, loved you into loving.”
“It’s not the honors and the prizes and the fancy outsides of life which ultimately nourish our souls. It’s the knowing that we can be trusted, that we never have to fear the truth, that the bedrock of our very being is good stuff.”
“The world needs a sense of worth, and it will achieve it only by its people feeling that they are worthwhile.”
“In a way, you’ve already won in this world because you’re the only one who can be you.”
“Discovering the truth about ourselves is a lifetime’s work, but it’s worth the effort.”
“It’s really easy to fall into the trap of believing that what we do is more important than what we are. Of course, it’s the opposite that’s true: What we are ultimately determines what we do!“
“How sad it is that we give up on people who are just like us.”
“Knowing that we can be loved exactly as we are gives us all the best opportunity for growing into the healthiest of people.”
“Nobody else can live the life you live.”
“Some days, doing ‘the best we can’ may still fall short of what we would like to be able to do, but life isn’t perfect on any front and doing what we can with what we have is the most we should expect of ourselves or anyone else.”
“Who we are in the present includes who we were in the past.”
“Children are to be respected and I respect them deeply. They’ve taught me an awful lot.”
“Love is like infinity: You can’t have more or less infinity, and you can’t compare two things to see if they’re ‘equally infinite.’ Infinity just is, and that’s the way I think love is, too.”
“Forgiveness is a strange thing. It can sometimes be easier to forgive our enemies than our friends. It can be hardest of all to forgive people we love. Like all of life’s important coping skills, the ability to forgive and the capacity to let go of resentments most likely take root very early in our lives.”
“How many times have you noticed that it’s the little quiet moments in the midst of life that seem to give the rest extra-special meaning?“
“Try your best to make goodness attractive. That’s one of the toughest assignments you’ll ever be given.”
“Mutual caring relationships require kindness and patience, tolerance, optimism, joy in the other’s achievements, confidence in oneself, and the ability to give without undue thought of gain.”
“One of the greatest dignities of humankind is that each successive generation is invested in the welfare of each new generation.”
“The media shows the tiniest percentage of what people do. There are millions and millions of people doing wonderful things all over the world, and they’re generally not the ones being touted in the news.”
“Everyone longs to be loved. And the greatest thing we can do is to let people know that they are loved and capable of loving.”
“It’s really easy to fall into the trap of believing that what we do is more important than what we are. Of course, it’s the opposite that’s true: What we are ultimately determines what we do!”
“Fame is a four-letter word; and like ‘tape’ or ‘zoom’ or ‘face’ or ‘pain’ or ‘life’ or ‘love,’ what ultimately matters is what we do with it.”
“It’s not so much what we have in this life that matters. It’s what we do with what we have.”
“Real strength has to do with helping others.”
“If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.” “As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has- or ever will have- something inside that is unique to all time. It’s our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression.”
