Fred McFeely Rogers was an American television personality, musician, puppeteer, writer, producer, and Presbyterian minister. He was known as the creator, composer, producer, head writer, showrunner, and host of the preschool television series Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, an educational children’s show that aired. Inspirational wise Fred Rogers quotes will give you hope for the world again and improve your whole day.
If you’re searching for life quotes and sayings that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of inspirational Dr Seuss quotes, and powerfully insightful Robin Williams quotes.
Most Famous Fred Rogers Quotes
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.
When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping
Nobody else can live the life you live.
We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say ‘It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.
Anyone who does anything to help a child in his life is a hero.
Try your best to make goodness attractive. That’s one of the toughest assignments you’ll ever be given.
We speak with more than our mouths. We listen with more than our ears.
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.
You are special. You’re special to me. There’s only one in this wonderful world.
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. Let’s take some time to think of those extra special people.
In a way, you’ve already won in this world because you’re the only one who can be you.
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.
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. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without which humankind cannot survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed.
You can’t really love someone else unless you really love yourself first.
To me, what makes someone successful is managing a healthy combination of wishing and doing. Wishing doesn’t make anything happen, but it certainly can be the start of some important happenings.
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.
Being kind means responding to the needs of others and people can be kind, no matter how old or young we are.
I’m proud of you for the times you came in second, or third, or fourth, but what you did was the best you had ever done.
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.
We get so wrapped up in numbers in our society. The most important thing is that we are able to be one to one, you and I with each other at the moment. If we can be present to the moment with the person that we happen to be with, that’s what’s important.
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.
Who we are in the present includes who we were in the past.
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.
It’s good to be curious about many things.
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.
Often out of periods of losing come the greatest strivings toward a new winning streak.
Discovering the truth about ourselves is a lifetime’s work, but it’s worth the effort.
It’s the people we love the most who can make us feel the gladdest and the maddest! Love and anger are such a puzzle!
Hate is such a strong word to use so lightly.
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 really think that everybody, every day, should be able to feel some success.
Who you are inside is what helps you make and do everything in life.
I think children and adults long to be in touch with what’s real. Don’t you?
Listening is where love begins: listening to ourselves and then to our neighbors.
The greatest gift you ever give is your honest self.
Often, problems are knots with many strands, and looking at those strands can make a problem seem different.
People wear all sorts of things, but the best part is the part that’s on the inside. That’s what’s really you the person inside.
When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting and less scary.
There is no person in this whole world who is a mistake, no matter how different that person may seem.
There are times when explanations, no matter how reasonable, just don’t seem to help.
There is one thought that I feel can be helpful to grown ups and children alike: Sadness isn’t forever. I’m not suggesting that we remind ourselves of this in order to lessen our grief. On the contrary. The knowledge that time does bring relief from sadness and that sooner or later there will be days when we are happy again may allow us to grieve more fully and deeply when we need to.
Feeling good about ourselves is essential in our being able to love others.
You can think about things and make believe. All you have to do is think and they’ll grow.
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.
I loved children, I loved drama I loved music, I loved whimsy, I loved puppetry.
Discovering the truth about ourselves is a lifetime’s work, but it’s worth the effort.
Playing about war is very different from having a real war. Play is one of the important ways children can work through their concerns. Of course, war play can become scary or unsafe. At times like that, children need to know adults are nearby to help reassure them, to stop the play when it becomes too scary, and to redirect the play into caring and nurturing themes, perhaps by suggesting they build a hospital for people who are hurt or tents and homes where others could go to eat and sleep.
The world needs a sense of worth, and it will achieve it only by its people feeling that they are worthwhile.
Our society is much more interested in information than wonder, in noise rather than silence And I feel that we need a lot more wonder and a lot more silence in our lives
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.
Sometime in your day today, try to turn off all the noises you can around you, and give yourself some quiet time. In the silence, let yourself think about something or if possible, think about nothing.
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.
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
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.
We speak with more than our mouths. We listen with more than our ears.
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?
Do you remember your favorite teachers? They were probably the ones who wanted to learn your name; who had a warm smile; who made you feel that they were glad to be there to help you learn. No matter how old or young we are, we learn best from people who care about us. That relationship grows when teachers are friendly, respectful, and interested in us as unique human beings.
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.
A high school student wrote to ask, What was the greatest event in American history? I can’t say. However, I suspect that likes so many ‘great’ events, it was something very simple and very quiet with little or no fanfare such as someone forgiving someone else for a deep hurt that eventually change the course of history The really important great’ things are never the center stage of life’s dramas; they’re always ‘in the wings. That’s why it’s so essential for us to be mindful of the humble and the deep rather than the flashy and the superficial.
Children are not merely vessels into which facts are poured one week and then when it comes time for exams they turn themselves upside down and let the facts run out. Children bring all of themselves, their feelings, and their experiences to the learning.
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.
Children need lots of free, quiet time to get used to all that’s developing within them. Have you noticed that unhurried time by yourself or with someone you really trust can be the best setting for personal growth? It’s no different for children.
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.
How our words are understood doesn’t depend just on how we express our ideas. It also depends on how someone receives what we’re saying. I think the most important part about communicating is the listening we do beforehand. When we can truly respect what someone brings to what we’re offering, it makes the communication all the more meaningful.
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.
I think the most important part about communicating is the listening we do beforehand. When we can truly respect what someone brings to what we’re offering, it makes the communication all the more meaningful.
I feel so strongly that deep and simple is far more essential than shallow and complex.
Please think of the children first. If you ever have anything to do with their entertainment, their food, their toys, their custody, their child care, their health care, their education listen to the children, learn about them, learn from them. Think of the children first.
We all have different gifts, so we all have different ways of saying to the world who we are.
The best way to learn something well is to ask somebody to help you with it. But it takes hours and hours of practice to be really good at it. In fact, it takes a lot of practice to be good at almost everything. But it’s worth it
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.
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.
When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.
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.
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.
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.
There are all kinds of artists in the world. If people can combine the talent that they have inside of them with the hard work that it takes to develop it, they can become a true artist of some kind.
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.
When children bring up something frightening, it’s helpful right away to ask them what they know about it. We often find that their fantasies are very different from the actual truth. What children probably need to hear most from us adults is that they can talk with us about anything and that we will do all we can to keep them safe in any scary time.
The only thing evil can’t stand is forgiveness.
When fears are present, many parents try to be reassuring, telling their children not to be afraid. But for inexplicable reasons, a child may actually need to be afraid. It may be more helpful to say, ‘There aren’t any real tigers out there, but I understand you’re scared, and I’ll be here to keep you safe. With reassurance like that, a child may feel strong enough to think about the ‘tiger’ and eventually tame it.
Taking care is one way to show your love. Another way is letting people take good care of you when you need it.
Where there is pain or sorrow in our children’s lives, as there is bound to be, there is often no way we can make it go away. Often our quiet availability is just what children need, far more than they need coaxes or cajoling or threats or punishments. Our reassuring presence may be enough to help them find inner resources of their own.
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.
I usually say at the end of each Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood program, You’ve made this day a special day by just being you. There’s only one person in the whole world like you and people can like you just because you’re you.’ That’s meant for children to hear, but it’s meant for parents, too.
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 used to cry to myself when I was alone. And I would cry through my fingers and make up songs on the piano.
It’s not the honors and the prizes and the fancy outsides of life which ultimately nourish our souls. It’s knowing that we can be trusted, that we never have to fear the truth, that the bedrock of our very being is good stuff.
It can be fun to be scared, as many of us will recall from Halloweens past. But if we think back, we’ll probably agree that there were two things that made it possible for that scariness to be fun. First, that we knew we were safe because someone we loved was nearby. Second, we knew that whatever was scaring us was only pretend.
It’s not so much what we have in this life that matters. It’s what we do with what we have.
It takes strength to face our sadness and to grieve and to let our grief and 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.
Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.
Children have very strong feelings. Children love intensely, and they get angry just as intensely. They can be so happy that they laugh out loud, and they can be so sad that they feel their hearts are breaking. And often the way children look at others depends a lot on how they feel within themselves.
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 wary of people who insist on trying to make other people feel bad about themselves. The more I look around me and within me the more I notice that those who feel best about themselves have the greatest capacity to feel good about others.
Try your best to make goodness attractive. That’s one of the toughest assignments you’ll ever be given.
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.
Love and trust, in the space between what’s said and what’s heard in our life, can make all the difference in this world.
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.
Our society is much more interested in information than wonder, in noise rather than silence And I feel that we need a lot more wonder and a lot more silence 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.
You can think about things and make believe. All you have to do is think and they’ll grow.
There is no chance of redemption if the goal is annihilation.
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.
The only thing evil can’t stand is forgiveness.
