"Perhaps nature is our best assurance of immortality"
About this Quote
The line also flips the usual script about immortality. Instead of promising personal survival, it gestures toward continuity: seasons recur, ecosystems outlast individuals, and life remakes itself out of what came before. It's reassurance scaled to the planet, not the ego. That is both humbling and politically useful. Roosevelt spent her public life selling a hard idea - that human dignity isn't a private luxury but a social obligation. Nature, in this framing, becomes a model of endurance and interdependence: nothing lives alone, nothing is wasted, everything returns.
There's subtextual grief management, too. Roosevelt lived through personal loss and national catastrophe, and she often had to translate sorrow into stamina for a public audience. "Our best assurance" suggests other assurances are shaky - religion contested, institutions fragile, history brutal. Nature offers an authority that doesn't need permission: it simply persists. The genius of the sentence is its restraint. It doesn't demand comfort; it offers a plausible place to put it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Nature |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Roosevelt, Eleanor. (2026, January 18). Perhaps nature is our best assurance of immortality. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/perhaps-nature-is-our-best-assurance-of-19283/
Chicago Style
Roosevelt, Eleanor. "Perhaps nature is our best assurance of immortality." FixQuotes. January 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/perhaps-nature-is-our-best-assurance-of-19283/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Perhaps nature is our best assurance of immortality." FixQuotes, 18 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/perhaps-nature-is-our-best-assurance-of-19283/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.









