Quotes by Roosevelt, Franklin D.

"Be sincere, be brief; be seated."

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on speakers and speaking
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"The barrier between success is not something which exists in the real world: it is composed purely and simply of doubts about ability."

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on belief   

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

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on taxes and taxation   

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

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on time   

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

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on truth
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"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."

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on unemployment   

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"Never underestimate a man who overestimates himself."

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on vanity
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"More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginnings of all wars."

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on war
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"War is a contagion."

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on war   

"If I went to work in a factory the first thing I'd do is join a union."

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on work   

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

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on action   

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

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on action
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"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."

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on common sense   

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

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on conservatives   

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

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on constitutions   

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

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on uncategorised   

"Those of you who have been there [Haiti] know it is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. It has everything. It has everything above the ground, and everything under the ground. It is an amazing place. I strongly recommend that whenever you get a chance, if you havent been there, that you go to Haiti. I think it was a certain Queen of England who said that after her death Calais would be found written on her heart. When I die, I think that Haiti is going to be written on my heart. "

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on uncategorised   

"Any Government, like any family, can for a year spend a little more than it earns. But you and I know that a continuation of that habit means the poorhouse. "

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on uncategorised   

"If the Nation is living within its income, its credit is good. If, in some crises, it lives beyond its income for a year or two, it can usually borrow temporarily at reasonable rates. But if, like a spendthrift, it throws discretion to the winds, and is willing to make no sacrifice at all in spending; if it extends its taxing to the limit of the peoples power to pay and continues to pile up deficits, then it is on the road to bankruptcy. "

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on uncategorised   

"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 consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference. "

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on uncategorised   

"History proves that dictatorships do not grow out of strong and successful governments, but out of weak and helpless ones. If by democratic methods people get a government strong enough to protect them from fear and starvation, their democracy succeeds; but if they do not, they grow impatient. Therefore, 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 its government. "

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on uncategorised   

"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 expressioneverywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own wayeverywhere in the world. The third is freedom from wantwhich, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitantseverywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fearwhich, 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 against any neighboranywhere in the world. "

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on uncategorised   

"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. "

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on uncategorised   

"Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itselfnameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. "

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on uncategorised   

"Too often in recent history liberal governments have been wrecked on rocks of loose fiscal policy. "

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on uncategorised   

"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. "

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on uncategorised   

"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. "

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on uncategorised   

"I hope your committee will not permit doubts as to constitutionality, however reasonable, to block the suggested legislation. "

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on uncategorised   

"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. "

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on uncategorised   

"I do not believe in communism any more than you do but there is nothing wrong with the Communists in this country; several of the best friends I have got are Communists. "

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on uncategorised   

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

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on uncategorised   

"Yesterday, December 7, 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. "

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on uncategorised   

"The frontier of America is on the Rhine. "

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on uncategorised   

"In time of this grave national danger, when all excess income should go to win the war, no American citizen ought to have a net income, after he has paid his taxes, of more than $25,000 a year. "

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on uncategorised   

"We have here a human as well as an economic problem. When humane considerations are concerned, Americans give them precedence. 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 fibre. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit. "

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on uncategorised   

"And while I am talking to you mothers and fathers, I give you one more assurance. I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again: Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars. "

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on uncategorised   

"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. The millions who are in want will not stand by silently forever while the things to satisfy their needs are within easy reach. "

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on uncategorised   

"Is the United States going to decide, are the people of this country going to decide that their Federal Government shall in the future have no right under any implied power or any court-approved power to enter into a solution of a national economic problem, but that that national economic problem must be decided only by the States? We thought we were solving it, and now it has been thrown right straight in our faces. We have been relegated to the horse-and-buggy definition of interstate commerce. "

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on uncategorised   

"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. "

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on uncategorised   

"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. "

Roosevelt, Franklin D. on uncategorised