Franklin D. Roosevelt Quotes

“When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.”― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people. ” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“It isn’t sufficient just to want – you’ve got to ask yourself what you are going to do to get the things you want.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“I think we consider too much the luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them.”― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“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 his hands at the behest–at the command–of his head.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“I have an unshaken conviction that democracy can never be undermined if we maintain our library resources and a national intelligence capable of utilizing them.”― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“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.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“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.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“Some people can never understand that you have to wait, even for the best of things, until the right time comes.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“Never underestimate a man who overestimates himself.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“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 Quote

“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 Quote

“We all know that books burn, yet we have the greater knowledge that books cannot be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can put thought in a concentration camp forever. No man and no force can take from the world the books that embody man’s eternal fight against tyranny of every kind.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“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.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“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.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“People, like charity, begins at home.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“People are not prisoners of fate, but prisoners of their own minds.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“All agree that, the first responsibility for the alleviation of poverty and distress and for the care of the victims of the depression rests upon the locality — its individuals, organizations and Government. It rests, first of all, perhaps, upon the private agencies of philanthropy, secondly, other social organizations, and last, but not least, the Church. Yet all agree that to leave to the locality the entire responsibility would result in placing the heaviest burden in most cases upon those who are the least able to bear it. In other words, the communities that have the most difficult problem, like Detroit, would be the communities that would have to bear the heaviest of the burdens. And so the State should step in to equalize the burden by providing for a large portion of the care of the victims of poverty and by providing assistance and guidance for local communities. Above and beyond that duty of the States the national Government has a responsibility.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“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 Quote

“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 Quote

“It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“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 Quote

“We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“If the fires of freedom and civil liberties burn low in other lands they must be made brighter in our own. If in other lands the press and books and literature of all kinds are censored we must redouble our efforts here to keep them free. If in other lands the eternal truths of the past are threatened by intolerance we must provide a safe place for their perpetuation.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“We have learned that we cannot live alone, at peace; that our own well-being is dependent on the well-being of nations far away. We have learned that we must live as men, and not as ostriches nor as dogs in the manger. We have learned to be citizens of the world, members of the human community.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

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

“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.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“For nearly four years you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up. 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.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“War is young men dying and old men talking” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“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.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“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.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights and keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose. To that high concept there can be no end save victory.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“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.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“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.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“I’m not the smartest fellow in the world, but I can sure pick smart colleagues.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“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.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“If you treat people right they will treat you right … ninety percent of the time.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“A war of ideas can no more be won without books than a naval war can be won without ships. Books, like ships, have the toughest armor, the longest cruising range, and mount the most powerful guns.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“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”― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“There is nothing so American as our national parks. The scenery and the wildlife are native. The fundamental idea behind the parks is native. It is, in brief, that the country belongs to the people, that it is in process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us. The parks stand as the outward symbal of the great human principle.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“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 government.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“I sometimes think that the saving grace of America lies in the fact that the overwhelming majority of Americans are possessed of two great qualities- a sense of humor and a sense of proportion.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“Today we are faced with the pre-eminent fact that if civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships, the ability of all peoples of all kins to live together and to work together in the same world at peace.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“Physical strength can never permanently withstand the impact of spiritual force.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny. In this world of ours in other lands, there are some people, who, in times past, have lived and fought for freedom, and seem to have grown too weary to carry on the fight. They have sold their heritage of freedom for the illusion of a living. They have yielded their democracy. I believe in my heart that only our success can stir their ancient hope. They begin to know that here in America we are waging a war against want and destitution and economic demoralization. It is more than that; it is a war for the survival of democracy. We are fighting to save a great and precious form of government for ourselves and for the world.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“I venture the challenging statement that if American democracy ceases to move forward as a living force, seeking day and night by peaceful means to better the lot of our citizens, fascism will grow in strength in our land.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“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 Quote

“If we will not prepare to give all that we have and that all that we are to preserve Christian civilization in our land, we shall go to destruction.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“Cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“As a nation we may take pride in the fact that we are softhearted; but we cannot afford to be soft-headed” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“We have faith that future generations will know that here, in the middle of the twentieth century, there came a time when men of good will found a way to unite, and produce, and fight to destroy the forces of ignorance, and intolerance, and slavery, and war.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“The essence of our struggle is that men shall be free.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“The country needs and unless I mistake its temper the country demands bold persistent experimentation. 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.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“We and all others who believe in freedom as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“Organized money hates me–and I welcome their hatred!” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“You are only an extra in everyone else’s play.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“Great power involves great responsibility” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“The Truth is found when men (and Women) are free to pursue it.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“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.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“We have always known that heedless self interest was bad morals, we now know that it is bad economics.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote

“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.” ― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quote