Franklin D. Roosevelt Quotes (139 Quotes)

A reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards.

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

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

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

Our national determination to keep free of foreign wars and foreign entanglements cannot prevent us from feeling deep concern when ideals and principles that we have cherished are challenged.

The ablest man I ever met is the man you think you are.

Don't forget what I discovered that over ninety percent of all national deficits from 1921 to 1939 were caused by payments for past, present, and future wars.

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 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 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,

If I were starting life over again, I am inclined to think that I would go into the advertising business in preference to almost any other. The general raising of the standards of modern civilization among all groups of people during the past half ce.

Repetition does not transform a lie into the truth.

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 two peas in the same pod.

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

To reach a port, we must sail - sail, not tie at anchor - sail, not drift.

In the field of world policy I would dedicate this nation to the policy of the good neighbor - the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others - the neighbor who respects his obligations and respect

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

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.

The civilization of the past 100 years, with its startling industrial changes, has tended more and more to make life insecure. Young people have come to wonder what would be their lot when they came to old age. The man with a job has wondered how long the job would last.

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

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

I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.

FDR had failed in his effort to get America behind the war effort until Pearl Harbor, although he was convinced Hitler had to be confronted. What he thought was 'If Britain goes down, we're next,'

Yesterday, December seventh, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

Favor comes because for a brief moment in the great space of human change and progress some general human purpose finds in him a satisfactory embodiment.

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

Wise and prudent men - intelligent conservatives - have long known that in a changing world worthy institutions can be conserved only by adjusting them to the changing time

I do not look upon these United States as a finished product. We are still in the making.

We can gain no lasting peace if we approach it with suspicion and mistrust or with fear. We can gain it only if we proceed with the understanding, the confidence, and the courage which flow from conviction.

The hand that held the dagger has thrust it into the nape of its neighbor's neck.

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.

Those newspapers of the nation which most loudly cried dictatorship against me would have been the first to justify the beginnings of dictatorship by somebody else.

I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.

In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression--everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way--everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want--which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants--everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear--which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression gainst any neighbor--anywhere in the world.

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.

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

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

Prosperous farmers mean more employment, more prosperity for the workers and the business men of every industrial area in the whole country.

It takes a long time to bring the past up to the present.

I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm.

Art is not a treasure in the past or an importation from another land, but part of the present life of all living and creating peoples.

Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off.

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

The point in history at which we stand is full of promise and danger. The world will either move forward toward unity and widely shared prosperity - or it will move apart.

We can never insure 100 percent of the population against 100 percent of the hazards and vicissitudes of life, but we have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age,

All private plans, all private lives, have been in a sense repealed by an overriding public danger.

Whoever seeks to set one religion against another seeks to destroy all religion.

There are as many opinions as there are experts.

Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are.

We shall make the most lasting progress if we recognize that Social Security can furnish only a base upon which each one of our citizens may build his individual security through his own individual efforts.