100 Quotes by Fred Rogers
Fred Rogers, beloved as "Mister Rogers," was a television personality, educator, and advocate for children's well-being. With his iconic cardigan sweater and gentle demeanor, Rogers became a reassuring presence for generations of children. His groundbreaking show, "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood," emphasized empathy, self-worth, and understanding, addressing complex topics such as feelings, diversity, and difficult situations in a sensitive and age-appropriate manner. Rogers' commitment to treating children with respect and his dedication to promoting their emotional and intellectual growth set a high standard for educational programming. Beyond television, Rogers' legacy extends to his role in advocating for public broadcasting and his passionate efforts to support children's development. His enduring impact on childhood education and the importance of kindness and authenticity continue to resonate with both children and adults.
Fred Rogers Quotes
Love isn't a perfect state of caring. (Meaning)
Anything mentionable is manageable. (Quote Meaning)
The child is in me still and sometimes not so still. (Meaning)
The only thing evil can’t stand is forgiveness. (Quote Meaning)
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. (Meaning)
When I say it's you I like, I'm talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch. (Quote Meaning)
The space between the television screen and the viewer is very holy ground. (Meaning)
It's not so much what we have in this life that matters. It's what we do with what we have. (Quote Meaning)
What do you do with the mad that you feel? When you feel so mad you could bite! (Meaning)
There are many ways to say I love you. (Quote Meaning)
Love is at the root of everything. (Meaning)
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.
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.
Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.
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.
When we choose to be parents, we accept another human being as part of ourselves, and a large part of our emotional selves will stay with that person as long as we live. From that time on, there will be another person on this earth whose orbit around us will affect us as surely as the moon affects the tides, and affect us in some ways more deeply than anyone else can. Our children are extensions of ourselves.
Often when you think you're at the end of something, you're at the beginning of something else. (Quote Meaning)
The greatest gift you ever give is your honest self. (Meaning)
Knowing that we can be loved exactly as we are gives us all the best opportunity for growing into the healthiest of people. (Quote Meaning)
Anyone who does anything to help a child in his life is a hero to me.
Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.
At the center of the Universe is a loving heart that continues to beat and that wants the best for every person. Anything that we can do to help foster the intellect and spirit and emotional growth of our fellow human beings, that is our job. Those of us who have this particular vision must continue against all odds. Life is for service.
It's very dramatic when two people come together to work something out. It's easy to take a gun and annihilate your opposition, but what is really exciting to me is to see people with differing views come together and finally respect each other.
We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. (Meaning)
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.
When we love a person, we accept him or her exactly as is: the lovely with the unlovely, the strong with the fearful, the true mixed in with the façade, and of course, the only way we can do it is by accepting ourselves that way.
Love isn't a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.
Imagine what our real neighborhoods would be like if each of us offered . . . just one kind word to another person.
What matters in this life is more than winning for ourselves. What really matters is helping others win too. Even if it means slowing down and changing our course now and then.
I think everybody longs to be loved and longs to know that he or she is lovable and, consequently, the greatest thing that we can do is to help somebody know that they are loved and capable of loving.
A love of learning has a lot to do with learning that we are loved.
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.
Confronting our feelings and giving them appropriate expression always takes strength, not weakness. It takes strength to acknowledge our anger, and sometimes more strength yet to curb the aggressive urges anger may bring and to channel them into nonviolent outlets. It takes strength to face our sadness and to grieve and to let our grief and our anger flow in tears when they need to. It takes strength to talk about our feelings and to reach out for help and comfort when we need it.
I feel so strongly that deep and simple is far more essential than shallow and complex.
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.
You make each day a special day. You know how, by just your being you.
Transitions are almost always signs of growth, but they can bring feelings of loss. To get somewhere new, we may have to leave somewhere else behind.
My hope for all of us is that 'the miles we go before we sleep' will be filled with all the feelings that come from deep caring--delight , sadness, joy, wisdom--and that in all the endings of our life, we will be able to see the new beginnings.
How great it is when we come to know that times of disappointment can be followed by joy; that guilt over falling short of our ideals can be replaced by pride in doing all that we can; and that anger can be channeled into creative achievements... and into dreams that we can make come true.
What interests me so much about the characters of the Bible is that they make mistakes but God uses them anyway, in important ways. Nobody's perfect, but God can even use our imperfection.
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?
I believe that appreciation is a holy thing--that when we look for what's best in a person we happen to be with at the moment, we're doing what God does all the time. So in loving and appreciating our neighbor, we're participating in something sacred.
I feel the greatest gift we can give to anybody is the gift of our honest self.
Anyone who does anything to help a child is a hero to me. (Quote Meaning)
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!
I'm fairly convinced that the Kingdom of God is for the broken-hearted. You write of 'powerlessness.' Join the club, we are not in control. God is.
Who we are in the present includes who we were in the past.
My hunch is that if we allow ourselves to give who we really are to the children in our care, we will in some way inspire cartwheels in their hearts.
You know, you don't have to look like everybody else to be acceptable and to feel acceptable. (Meaning)
The connections we make in the course of a life--maybe that's what heaven is.
The values we care about the deepest, and the movements within society that support those values, command our love. When those things that we care about so deeply become endangered, we become enraged. And what a healthy thing that is! Without it, we would never stand up and speak out for what we believe.
It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine; could you be mine?
The real issue in life is not how many blessings we have, but what we do with our blessings. Some people have many blessings and hoard them. Some have few and give everything away.
I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers - so many caring people in this world.
Real strength has to do with helping others. (Quote Meaning)
In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as important as our answers.
All of us have special ones who have loved us into being. Would you just take, along with me, ten seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are....Ten seconds of silence.
Human relationships are primary in all of living. When the gusty winds blow and shake our lives, if we know that people care about us, we may bend with the wind ... but we won’t break.
The world is not always a kind place. That's something all children learn for themselves, whether we want them to or not, but it's something they really need our help to understand.
I recently learned that in an average lifetime a person walks about sixty-five thousand miles. That's two and a half times around the world. I wonder where your steps will take you. I wonder how you'll use the rest of the miles you're given.
We Don't always succeed in what we try, certainly not by the world's standards, but I think you'll find it's the willingness to keep trying that matters most.
The older I get, the more convinced I am that the space between people who are trying their best to understand each other is hallowed ground.
Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary. The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that we are not alone.
One of the greatest dignities of humankind is that each successive generation is invested in the welfare of each new generation.
Our world hangs like a magnificent jewel in the vastness of space. Every one of us is a part of that jewel. A facet of that jewel. And in the perspective of infinity, our differences are infinitesimal.
It would have been sad for me to spend my life just trying to superimpose stuff on people rather than trying to encourage them to look within themselves for what's of value.
Love begins with listening.
When we treat children's play as seriously as it deserves, we are helping them feel the joy that's to be found in the creative spirit. We're helping ourselves stay in touch with that spirit, too. It's the things we play withand the people who help us play that make a great difference in our lives.
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.
Music is the one art we all have inside. We may not be able to play an instrument, but we can sing along or clap or tap our feet. Have you ever seen a baby bouncing up and down in the crib in time to some music? When you think of it, some of that baby's first messages from his or her parents may have been lullabies, or at least the music of their speaking voices. All of us have had the experience of hearing a tune from childhood and having that melody evoke a memory or a feeling. The music we hear early on tends to stay with us all our lives.
All I know to do is to light the candle that has been given to me.
The best teacher in the world is someone who loves what he or she does, and just loves it in front of you.
Honesty is often very hard. The truth is often painful. But the freedom it can bring is worth the trying.
Solitude is different from loneliness, and it doesn't have to be a lonely kind of thing.
Most of us, I believe, admire strength. It's something we tend to respect in others, desire for ourselves, and wish for our children. Sometimes, though, I wonder if we confuse strength with other words—like 'aggression' and even 'violence'. Real strength is neither male nor female; but it is, quite simply, one of the finest characteristics that a human being can possess.
It may take months or years for a wish to come true, but it's far more likely to happen when you care so much about a wish that you'll do all you can to make it happen.
The purpose of life is to listen - to yourself, to your neighbor, to your world and to God and, when the time comes, to respond in as helpful a way as you can find ... from within and without.
Feeling good about ourselves is essential in our being able to love others. (Meaning)
If it's mentionable, it's manageable. (Quote Meaning)
Anyone who has ever been able to sustain good work has had at least one person--and often many--who have believed in him or her. We just don't get to be competent human beings without a lot of different investments from others.
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.
I like you just the way you are. (Meaning)
Sometimes people are good, and they do just what they should. But the very same people who are good sometimes are the very same people who are bad sometimes. It's funny but it's true. Its the same isn't it, for me and . . .
Try your best to make goodness attractive. That's one of the toughest assignments you'll ever be given.
A young apprentice applied to a master carpenter for a job. The older man asked him, "Do you know your trade?" "Yes, sir!" the young man replied proudly. "Have you ever made a mistake?" the older man inquired. "No, sir!" the young man answered, feeling certain he would get the job. "Then there's no way I'm going to hire you," said the master carpenter, "because when you make one, you won't know how to fix it.
When I was a boy I used to think that STRONG meant having big muscles, great physical power; but the longer I live, the more I realize that real strength has much more to do with what is NOT seen. Real strength has to do with helping others.
Whether we're a preschooler or a young teen, a graduating college senior or a retired person, we human beings all want to know that we're acceptable, that our being alive somehow makes a difference in the lives of others.
Silence is so powerful, so important. There is so much to be learned from it.
We want to raise our children so that they can take a sense of pleasure in both their own heritage and the diversity of others.
Often, problems are knots with many strands, and looking at those strands can make a problem seem different.
Our worlds needs more time to wonder and reflect but there is too much fast paced constant distraction.
Listening is a very active awareness of the coming together of at least two lives. Listening, as far as I'm concerned, is certainly a prerequisite of love. One of the most essential ways of saying 'I love you' is being a receptive listener.
The world needs a sense of worth (Meaning)
Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning. (Quote Meaning)
The roots of a child's ability to cope and thrive, regardless of circumstance, lie in that child's having had at least a small, safe place (an apartment? a room? a lap?) in which, in the companionship of a loving person, that child could discover that he or she was lovable and capable of loving in return. If a child finds this during the first years of life, he or she can grow up to be a competent, healthy person.
Part of the problem with the word 'disabilities' is that it immediately suggests an inability to see or hear or walk or do other things that many of us take for granted. But what of people who can't feel? Or talk about their feelings? Or manage their feelings in constructive ways? What of people who aren't able to form close and strong relationships? And people who cannot find fulfillment in their lives, or those who have lost hope, who live in disappointment and bitterness and find in life no joy, no love? These, it seems to me, are the real disabilities.
The presence of a grandparent confirms that parents were, indeed, little once, too, and that people who are little can grow to be big, can become parents, and one day even have grandchildren of their own. So often we think of grandparents as belonging to the past; but in this important way, grandparents, for young children, belong to the future.
We speak with more than our mouths. We listen with more than our ears.
Deep within us-no matter who we are-there lives a feeling of wanting to be lovable, of wanting to be the kind of person that others like to be with. And the greatest thing we can do is to let people know that they are loved and capable of loving.
The kingdom of God is for the broken hearted
All of us have special ones who have loved us into being (Meaning)
I'm proud of you for the times you came in second, or third, or fourth, but what you did was the best you have ever done
Very frankly, I am opposed to people being programmed by others. My whole approach in broadcasting has always been 'You are an important person just the way you are. You can make healthy decisions.' Maybe I'm going on too long, but I just feel that anything that allows a person to be more active in the control of his or her life, in a healthy way, is important.
There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.
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.
Play is really the work of childhood.
The greatest gift that you can give another person is to gracefully receive whatever it is that they want to give us.
We all have different gifts, so we all have different ways of saying to the world who we are.
Of course, I get angry. Of course, I get sad. I have a full range of emotions. I also have a whole smorgasbord of ways of dealing with my feelings. That is what we should give children. Give them ... ways to express their rage without hurting themselves or somebody else. That's what the world needs.
Those of us who are in this world to educate-to care for-young children have a special calling: a calling that has very little to do with the collection of expensive possessions but has a lot to do with worth inside of heads and hearts.
Call them rules or call them limits, good ones, I believe, have this in common: they serve reasonable purposes; they are practical and within a child's capability; they are consistent; and they are an expression of loving concern.
It’s the people we love the most who can make us feel the gladdest... and the maddest! (Quote Meaning)
Discovering the truth about ourselves is a lifetime’s work (Meaning)
It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood, A beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine? Could you be mine?... It's a neighborly day in this beauty wood, A neighborly day for a beauty. Would you be mine? Could you be mine?... I've always wanted to have a neighbor just like you. I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you. So, let's make the most of this beautiful day. Since we're together we might as well say: Would you be mine? Could you be mine? Won't you be my neighbor? Won't you please, Won't you please? Please won't you be my neighbor?
I wonder if we might pledge ourselves to remember what life is really all about—not to be afraid that we're less flashy than the next, not to worry that our influence is not that of a tornado, but rather that of a grain of sand in an oyster! Do we have that kind of patience?
Love and trust, in the space between what’s said and what’s heard in our life, can make all the difference in the world.
Life is deep and simple, and what our society gives us is shallow and complicated.
Kids can spot a phony a mile away.
There's no "should" or "should not" when it comes to having feelings. They're part of who we are and their origins are beyond our control. When we can believe that, we may find it easier to make constructive choices about what to do with those feelings.
As different as we are from one another, as unique as each one of us is, we are much more the same than we are different. That may be the most essential message of all, as we help our children grow toward being caring, compassionate, and charitable adults.
Listening is where love begins: listening to ourselves and then to our neighbors. (Quote Meaning)
In appreciating our neighbor, we're participating in something truly sacred.
It's a mistake to think that we have to be lovely to be loved by human beings or by God
Parents don't come full bloom at the birth of the first baby. In fact parenting is about growing. It's about our own growing as much as it is about our children's growing and that kind of growing happens little by little.
It's our insides that make us who we are, that allow us to dream and wonder and feel for others. That's what's essential. That's what will always make the biggest difference in our world.
Peace means far more than the opposite of war.
We need to help people to discover the true meaning of love. Love is generally confused with dependence. Those of us who have grown in true love know that we can love only in proportion to our capacity for independence.
We're all on a journey - each one of us. And if we can be sensitive to the person who happens to be our neighbor, that, to me, is the greatest challenge as well as the greatest pleasure.
Little by little we human beings are confronted with situations that give us more and more clues that we are not perfect.
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.
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.
When our children see us expressing our emotions, they can learn that their own feelings are natural and permissible, can be expressed, and can be talked about. That's an important thing for our children to learn.
Attitudes are caught, not taught. (Meaning)
It's a miracle when we finally discover whom we're best equipped to serve.
And those handmade presents that children often bring home from school: They have so much value! The value is that the child put whatever he or she could into making them. The way we parents respond to the giving of such gifts is very important. To the child the gift is really self, and they want so much for their selves to be acceptable, to be loved.
People have said, 'Don't cry' to other people for years and years, and all it has ever meant is, 'I'm too uncomfortable when you show your feelings. Don't cry.' I'd rather have them say, 'Go ahead and cry. I'm here to be with you.'
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.
It always helps to have people we love beside us when we have to do difficult things in life.
I hope that you're learning how important you are, how important each person you see can be. Discovering each one's specialty is the most important learning.
What really matters is not just our own winning but helping other people to win, too.
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.
We all have only one life to live on Earth, and through television we have the choice of encouraging others to demean this life or to cherish it in creative, imaginative ways.
You bring all you ever were and are to any relationship you have today.
Imagining 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.
You've made this day a special day by just your being you. (Quote Meaning)
The gifts we treasure most over the years are often small and simple. In easy times and tough times, what seems to matter most is the way we show those nearest us that we've been listening to their needs, to their joys, and to their challenges.
Who you are inside is what helps you make and do everything in life.
Hopefully your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are.
It's important to know when we need to stop, reflect, and receive. In our competitive world, that might be called a waste of time.
I don't want to eat anything that has a mother
If the grain of wheat could know fear, it would be paralyzed with anxiety at the thought of being dropped in the ground, covered over, put out of sight, doomed to inactivity, yet what a glorious harvest awaits it!
There's always someone who is trying to help.
I believe that at the center of the universe there dwells a loving spirit who longs for all that’s best in all of creation, a spirit who knows the great potential of each planet as well as each person, and little by little will love us into being more than we ever dreamed possible. That loving spirit would rather die than give up on any one of us.
I feel that the real drama of life is never center stage, it's always in the wings. It's never with the spotlight on, it's usually something that you don't expect at all.
I believe it's a fact of life that what we have is less important than what we make out of what we have.
― Fred Rogers Quotes
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
