Franklin d. roosevelt quotes

We know that enduring peace cannot be bought at the cost of other people's freedom.

A good leader can't get too far ahead of his followers.

If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace.

The value of love will always be stronger than the value of hate. Any nation or group of nations which employs hatred eventually is torn to pieces by hatred.

The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the goverment.

When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck to crush him.

The Presidency is not merely an administrative office. Thats the least of it. It is more than an engineering job, efficient or inefficient. It is pre-eminently a place of moral leadership. All our great Presidents were leaders of thought at times when certain historic ideas in the life of the nation had to be clarified.

The Democratic Party will live and continue to receive the support of the majority of Americans just so long as it remains a liberal party.

We are a nation of many nationalities, many races, many religions-bound together by a single unity, the unity of freedom and equality. Whoever seeks to set one nationality against another, seeks to degrade all nationalities.

We know that equality of individual ability has never existed and never will, but we do insist that equality of opportunity still must be sought.

Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us.

We defend and we build a way of life, not for America alone, but for all mankind.

In these days of difficulty, we Americans everywhere must and shall choose the path of social justice…, the path of faith, the path of hope, and the path of love toward our fellow man.

The first theory is that if we make the rich richer, somehow they will let a part of their prosperity trickle down to the rest of us. The second theory was the theory that if we make the average of mankind comfortable and secure, their prosperity will rise upward through the ranks.

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

Never before have we had so little time in which to do so much.

More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginning of all wars - yes, an end to this brutal, inhuman and thoroughly impractical method of settling the differences between governments.

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and Senators and Congressmen and Government officials but the voters of this country.

There should be no bitterness or hate where the sole thought is the welfare of the United States of America. No man can occupy the office of President without realizing that he is President of all the people.

In our democracy officers of the government are the servants, and never the masters of the people.

It is one of the characteristics of a free and democratic nation that it have free and independent labor unions.

Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are.

The fate of America cannot depend on any one man. The greatness of America is grounded in principles and not on any single personality.

Change is like fire- if uncontrolled, it will consume us.

Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.

No government can help the destinies of people who insist in putting sectional and class consciousness ahead of general weal.

There are as many opinions as there are experts.

No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it.

We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization.

The motto of war is: "Let the strong survive; let the weak die." The motto of peace is: "Let the strong help the weak to survive."

We need enthusiasm, imagination and the ability to face facts, even unpleasant ones, bravely. We need to correct, by drastic means if necessary, the faults in our economic system from which we now suffer. We need the courage of the young. Yours is not the task of making your way in the world, but the task of remaking the world which you will find before you. May every one of us be granted the courage, the faith and the vision to give the best that is in us to that remaking!

A radical is a man with both feet firmly planted-in the air. A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs, who, however, has never learned to walk forward. A reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards. A liberal is a man who uses his legs and hands at the behest of his head.

...Since 1775 the United States Marines have upheld a fine tradition of service to their country. They are doing so today. I am confident they will continue to do so.

People acting together as a group can accomplish things which no individual acting alone could ever hope to bring about.

It will never be possible for any length of time for any group of the American people, either by reason of wealth or learning or inheritance or economic power, to retain any mandate, any permanent authority to arrogate to itself the political control of American public life.

Presidents are selected, not elected.

We may not be able to prepare the future for our children, but we can at least prepare our children for the future.

That, in its essence, is Fascism — ownership of Government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.

If you have spent two years in bed trying to wiggle your big toe, everything else seems easy.

They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate.

It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.

We have always known that heedless self interest was bad morals, we now know that it is bad economics.

To some generations much is given. Of other generations, much is expected.

The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.

The Nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.

We have nothing to fear but fear itself.

The best customer of American industry is the well paid worker.

We may make mistakes-but they must never be mistakes which result from faintness of heart or abandonment of moral principle.

No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country... By living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level - I mean the wages of decent living.

Books can not be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can abolish memory... In this war, we know, books are weapons. And it is a part of your dedication always to make them weapons for man's freedom.

The duty of the State toward the citizen is the duty of the servant to its master.... One of the duties of the State is that of caring for those of its citizens who find themselves the victims of such adverse circumstances as makes them unable to obtain even the necessities for mere existence without the aid of others.... To these unfortunate citizens aid must be extended by government--not as a matter of charity but as a matter of social duty.

In my Inaugural I laid down the simple proposition that nobody is going to starve in this country. It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By "business" I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level - I mean the wages of decent living.

Democracy can thrive only when it enlists the devotion of those whom Lincoln called the common people. Democracy can hold that devotion only when it adequately respects their dignity by so ordering society as to assure to the masses of men and women reasonable security and hope for themselves and for their children.

No country, however rich, can afford the waste of its human resources. Demoralization caused by vast unemployment is our greatest extravagance. Morally, it is the greatest menace to our social order.

Remember you are just an extra in everyone else's play.

The loneliest feeling in the world is when you think you are leading the parade and turn to find that no one is following you. No president who badly misguesses public opinion will last very long.

I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded. I have seen men coughing out their gassed lungs. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed. I have seen 200 limping, exhausted men come out of line—the survivors of a regiment of 1,000 that went forward 48 hours before. I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war.

The barrier to success is not something which exists in the real world; it is composed purely and simply of doubts about ability.

It is better to swallow words than to have to eat them later.

Tell that to the Marines!

Real estate cannot be lost or stolen, nor can it be carried away. Purchased with common sense, paid for in full, and managed with reasonable care, it is about the safest investment in the world.

Above all, try something

An election cannot give a country a firm sense of direction if it has two or more national parties which merely have different names but are as alike in their principles and aims as peas in the same pod.

A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward.

The real safeguard of democracy is education.

I am neither bitter nor cynical but I do wish there was less immaturity in political thinking.

Organized money hates me--and I welcome their hatred!

In this nation I see tens of millions of its citizens, a substantial part of its whole population, who at this very moment are denied the greater part of what the very lowest standards of today call the necessities of life. I see one third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished. The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.

This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.

Go for the moon. If you don't get it, you'll still be heading for a star. Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of the creative effort.

Hitler built a fortress around Europe, but he forgot to put a roof on it.

We are trying to construct a more inclusive society. We are going to make a country in which no one is left out.

Against naked force the only possible defense is naked force. The aggressor makes the rules for such a war; the defenders have no alternative but matching destruction with more destruction, slaughter with greater slaughter.

The truth is found when men are free to pursue it.

Government cannot close its eyes to the pollution of waters, to the erosion of soil, to the slashing of forests any more than it can close its eyes to the need for slum clearance and schools.

Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.

Be sincere; be brief; be seated.

No democracy can long survive which does not accept as fundamental to its very existence the recognition of the rights of minorities.

We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.

Freedom of the press is essential to the preservation of a democracy; but there is a difference between freedom and license. Editorialists who tell downright lies in order to advance their own agendas do more to discredit the press than all the censors in the world.

There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.

In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.

The Social Security Act offers to all our citizens a workable and working method of meeting urgent present needs and of forestalling future need. It utilizes the familiar machinery of our Federal-State government to promote the common welfare and the economic stability of the Nation.

Governments can err, Presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted in different scales. Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the constant omission of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.

Do the best you can do and wait the results in peace.

Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle.

Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

Peace, like charity, begins at home.

All of our people all over the country-except the pure-blooded Indians-are immigrants or descendants of immigrants, including even those who came over here on the Mayflower.

Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.

Dec. 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.

We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way. The third is freedom from want. The fourth is freedom from fear.

The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the larger centers has owned the Government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson...

Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society.

The handling of our forests as a continuous, renewable resource means permanent employment and stability to our country life. The forests are also needed for mitigating extreme climatic fluctuations, holding the soil on the slopes, retaining the moisture in the ground, and controlling the equable flow of water in our streams.

These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the flag and the Constitution stand for.

The principle on which this country was founded and by which it has always been governed is that Americanism is a matter of the mind and heart; Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry.

Physical strength can never permanently withstand the impact of spiritual force.

We, and all others who believe in freedom as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.

More striking still, it appeared that, if the process of concentration goes on at the same rate, at the end of another century we shall have all American industry controlled by a dozen corporations and run by perhaps a hundred men. Put plainly, we are steering a steady course toward economic oligarchy, if we are not there already.

No greater tragedy exists in modern civilization than the aged, worn-out worker who after a life of ceaseless effort and useful productivity must look forward for his declining years to a poorhouse. A modern social consciousness demands a more humane and efficient arrangement.

I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.

Never underestimate a man who overestimates himself.

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.

We must especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American Eagle in order to feather their own nests.

The virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea.

Freedom of conscience, of education, of speech, of assembly are among the very fundamentals of democracy and all of them would be nullified should freedom of the press ever be successfully challenged.

We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace - business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me - and I welcome their hatred.

The whole world is one neighborhood.

I want to preach a new doctrine. A complete separation of business and government.

The presidency is not merely an administrative office...It is pre-eminently a place of moral leadership.

We know now that government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob.

True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

What America needs now is a drink.

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.

It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

If you treat people right they will treat you right... ninety percent of the time.

Do Something. If it works, do more of it. If it doesn't, do something else.

Freedom of speech...Freedom of worship...Freedom from want...Freedom from fear.

Calm seas never made a good sailor

Every man has a right to life, and this means that he has also a right to make a comfortable living.