Franklin D Roosevelt Quotes

And yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered, because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Are we going to take the hands of the federal government completely off any effort to adjust the growing of national crops, and go right straight back to the old principle that every farmer is a lord of his own farm and can do anything he wants, raise anything, any old time, in any quantity, and sell any time he wants? ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Men and nature must work hand in hand. The throwing out of balance of the resources of nature throws out of balance also the lives of men. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over government itself. They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction ... And as a result the average man once more confronts the problem that faced the Minute Man ... ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

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 ... ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

I regard reduction in Federal spending as one of the most important issues of this campaign. In my opinion, it is the most direct and effective contribution that Government can make to business. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

I Pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessing on THIS HOUSE, and on All that shall hereafter Inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof! President Franklin D. Roosevelt had this lettered in gold in the marble over the fireplace in the State Dining Room of the White House. The quotation above follows the capitalization used in the inscription. ~ John Adams

Our national debt after all is an internal debt owed not only by the Nation but to the Nation. If our children have to pay interest on it they will pay that interest to themselves. A reasonable internal debt will not impoverish our children or put the Nation into bankruptcy. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

The hand that held the dagger has struck it into the back of its neighbor. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

It is time to provide a smashing answer for those cynical men who say that a democracy cannot be honest, cannot be efficient ... We have in the darkest moments of our national trials retained our faith in our own ability to master our own destiny. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

True wealth is not a static thing. It is a living thing made out of the disposition of men to create and distribute the good things of life with rising standards of living. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

I have a terrific pain in the back of my head. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Always will we remember the character of the onslaught against us. 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 ... we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Let me make it clear that I do not assert that a President and the Congress must on all points agree with each other at all times. Many times in history there has been complete disagreement between the two branches of the Government, and in these disagreements sometimes the Congress has won and sometimes the President has won. But during the Administration of the present President we have had neither agreement nor a clear-cut battle. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Above all, try something ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

It [concentration of wealth and power] has been a menace to ... American democracy. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Freedom to learn is the first necessity of guaranteeing that man himself shall be self reliant enough to be free. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

In a democratic nation, power must be linked with responsibility, and obliged to defend and justify itself within the framework of the general good. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

Friendship among nations, as among individuals, calls for constructive efforts to muster the forces of humanity in order that an atmosphere of close understanding and cooperation may be cultivated. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob ... [The organized moneyed people] are unanimous in their hate for me and I welcome their hatred ... I should like to have it said of my second administration that these forces met their master. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

The money-changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

'Peace on earth, good will toward men' - democracy must cling to that message. For it is my deep conviction that democracy cannot live without that true religion which gives a nation a sense of justice and moral purpose. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Nationwide thinking, nationwide planning and nationwide action are the three great essentials to prevent nationwide crises for future generations to struggle through. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

We are not isolationists except in so far as we seek to isolate ourselves completely from war. Yet we must remember that so long as war exists on earth there will be some danger that even the Nation which most ardently desires peace may be drawn into war. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

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. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

You are, I am sure, aware that genuine popular support in the United States is required to carry out any Government policy, foreign or domestic. The American people make up their own minds and no governmental action can change it. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

As Americans, we go forward, in the service of our country, by the will of God. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service, ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Confidence ... thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

There is nothing I love as much as a good fight. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

I believe that in every country the people themselves are more peaceably and liberally inclined than their governments. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

In this country kings or dukes don't amount to nothing. The greatest man around then was Franklin D. Roosevelt, and he was the President; so I started calling Lester the President. It got shortened to Pres. ~ Billie Holiday

A great man left a watchword that we can well repeat: "There is no indispensable man" ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

To reach a port we must set sail ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

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. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

I have seen war ... I hate war. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

The gains in education are never really lost. Books may be burned and cities sacked, but truth, like the yearning for freedom, lives in the hearts of humble men. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

It is to the real advantage of every producer, every manufacturer and every merchant to cooperate in the improvement of working conditions, because the best customer of American industry is the well-paid worker. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

A program whose basic thesis is, not that the system of free enterprise for profit has failed in this generation, but that it has not yet been tried! ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

The true conservative is the man who has a real concern for injustices and takes thought against the day of reckoning. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

The function of Government must be to favor no small group at the expense of its duty to protect the rights of personal freedom and of private property of all its citizens. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

People, like charity, begins at home. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Democracy alone, of all forms of government, enlists the full force of men's enlightened will. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Not only our future economic soundness but the very soundness of our democratic institutions depends on the determination of our government to give employment to idle men. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

No group and no government can properly prescribe precisely what should constitute the body of knowledge with which true education is concerned. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

No one wanted the job. What had seemed one of the least challenging tasks facing Franklin D. Roosevelt as newly elected president had, by June 1933, become one of the most intransigent. As ambas-sadorial posts went, Berlin should have been a plum - not London or Paris, surely, but still one of the great capitals of Europe, and at the center of a country going through revolutionary change under the leadership of its newly appointed chancellor, Adolf Hitler. Depending on one's point of view, Germany was experiencing a great revival or a savage darkening. Upon Hitler's ascent, the country had undergone a brutal spasm of state- condoned violence. Hitler's brown- shirted paramilitary army, the Sturmabteilung, or SA - the Storm Troopers - had gone wild, arresting, beating, and in some cases murdering communists, socialists, and Jews. Storm Troopers established impromptu prisons and torture stations in basements, sheds, and other structures. Berlin alone had fi fty of these so- called bunkers. Tens of thousands of people were arrested and placed in "protective custody" - Schutzhaft - a risible euphemism. An esti-mated fi ve hundred to seven hundred prisoners died in custody; others endured "mock drownings and hangings," according to a police affi davit. One prison near Tempelhof Airport became especially no-torious: Columbia House, not to be confused with a sleekly modern new building at the heart of Berlin called Columbus House. The up-heaval prompted one Jewish leader, Rabbi Step ~ Erik Larson

The lessons of history, confirmed by the evidence immediately before me, show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber.
To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit. It is inimical to the dictates of sound policy. It is in violation of the traditions of America. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

The True conservative seeks to protect the system of private property and free enterprise by correcting such injustices and inequalities as arise from it. The most serious threat to our institutions comes from those who refuse to face the need for change. Liberalism becomes the protection for the far-sighted conservative. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

For three long years I have been going up and down this country preaching that government ... costs too much. I shall not stop that preaching. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

I am much interested and deeply impressed by what he has accomplished and by his evidenced honest purpose of restoring Italy and seeking to prevent general European trouble. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Are you laboring under the impression that I read these memoranda of yours? I can't even lift them. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

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. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

I want to preach a new doctrine. A complete separation of business and government. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

People die, but books never die. No man and no force can abolish memory. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

We have our difficulties, true; but we are a wiser and a tougher nation than we were in 1932. Never have there been six years of such far flung internal preparedness in all of history. And this has been done without any dictator's power to command, without conscription of labor or confiscation of capital, without concentration camps and without a scratch on freedom of speech, freedom of the press or the rest of the Bill of Rights. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

A serf-supporting and self-respecting democracy can plead no justification for the existence of child labor, no economic reason for chiseling workers' wages or stretching workers' hours. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

When Arthur Schlesinger Sr. pioneered the 'presidential greatness poll' in 1948, the top five were Lincoln, Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Jefferson. Only Wilson appears to be seriously fading, probably because his support for the World War I-era Sedition Act now seems outrageous; in this analogy, Woodrow is like the Doors and the Sedition Act is Oliver Stone. ~ Chuck Klosterman

The winds that blow through the wide sky in these mounts, the winds that sweep from Canada to Mexico, from the Pacific to the Atlantic - have always blown on free men. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

There are very few things we can know beforehand. We will try and if we find we are wrong, we will have to change. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

The history of the last half century is accordingly in large measure a history of financial titans, whose methods were not scrutinized with too much care and who were honored in proportion as they produced the results, irrespective of the means they used. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Beware of that profound enemy of the free enterprise system who pays lip-service to free competition, but also labels every antitrust prosecution as a persecution. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace
a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

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 the bare subsistence level - I mean the wages of a decent
living. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

You cannot organize civilization around the core of militarism and at the same time expect reason to control human destinies. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

This nation asks for action, and action now. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

The truth is found when men are free to pursue it. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

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. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

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. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Democracy is not a static thing. It is an everlasting march. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

I am ... willing to make it clear that American foreign policy must uphold the sanctity of international treaties. That is the cornerstone on which all relations between nations must rest. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Old women are the secret to the fluffiest cakes. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Whoever seeks to set one religion against another seeks to destroy all religion. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

The essence of our struggle is that men shall be free. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

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. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

To stand upon ramparts and die for our principles is heroic, but to sally forth to battle and win for our principles is something more than heroic. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

My chief literary influences have been Paul Laurence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg, and Walt Whitman. My favorite public figures include Jimmy Durante, Marlene Dietrich, Mary McLeod Bethune, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Marian Anderson, and Henry Armstrong. ~ Langston Hughes

I hope that your committee will not permit doubt as to constitutionality, however reasonable, to block the suggested legislation ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

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. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

You'll have to learn that public life takes a lot of sweat. But it doesn't need to worry you. You won't always be right, but you musn't suffer from being wrong. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

The essential qualities of a true Pan Americanism must be the same as those which constitute a good neighbor; namely, mutual understanding, and through such understanding, a sympathetic appeciation of the other's point of view. It is only in this manner that we can hope to build up a system of which confidence, friendship, and good will are the cornerstones ... ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

I propose to create a Civilian Conservation Corps to be used in simple work ... More important, however, than the material gains will be the moral and spiritual value of such work. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

This law represents a cornerstone in a structure which is being built but is by no means completed
a structure intended to lessen the force of possible future depressions, to act as a protection to future administrations of the Government against the necessity of going deeply into debt to furnish relief to the needy
a law to flatten out the peaks and valleys of deflation and of inflation
in other words, a law that will take care of human needs and at the same time provide for the United States an economic structure of vastly greater soundness. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

The chief problem is, of course, whether the marching of the general spirit of things is heading consciously or sub- consciously toward an idea of extension of boundaries. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

It's a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead
and to find no one there. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

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." ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

To cut 1930s jobless, FDR taxed corps and rich. Govt used money to hire many millions. Worked then; would now again. Why no debate on that? ~ Richard D. Wolff

The ablest man I ever met is the man you think you are. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

All that is within me cries out to go back to my home on the Hudson River ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Let us be clear at the outset that the liberty of individuals to carry on their business should not be abrogated unless the larger interests of the many are concerned. It is the purpose of government to see that not only the legitimate interests of the few are protected but that the welfare and rights of the many are conserved. These are the principals which must be remembered in any consideration of this question. This, I take it, is sound government-not politics. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

The first twelve years are the hardest. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

My fellow Americans: Last night when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that the troops of the United States and our allies were crossing the channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far. And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join me in prayer:
Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization ... ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

To reach a port, we must sail - sail, not tie at anchor - sail, not drift. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt