Franklin D. Roosevelt Quotes on Government (12 Quotes)

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.

The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it comes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group,

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.

We are fighting to save a great and precious form of government for ourselves and for the world

Government run by organized money is the same as government run by the organized mob

A government can be no better than the public opinion which sustains it

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

We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace-business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hatred for me - and I welcome their hatred. I should like to have it said of my first administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match. I should like to have it said of my second administration that in it these forces met their master.- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Speech at Madison Square Garden.

It is the duty of the President to propose and it is the privilege of the Congress to dispose.

The United States Constitution has proved itself the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written.

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

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