Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

These unhappy times call for the building of plans that build from the bottom up and not from the top down, that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

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

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

But while they prate of economic laws, men and women are starving. We must lay hold of the fact that economic laws are not made by nature. They are made by human beings.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

I have no expectation of making a hit every time I come to bat.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

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

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

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

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

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

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

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

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

There is no indispensable man.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel in order to be tough.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

It is a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead -- and find no one there.

— 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

The moment a mere numerical superiority by either states or voters in this country proceeds to ignore the needs and desires of the minority, and for their own selfish purpose or advancement, hamper or oppress that minority, or debar them in any way from equal privileges and equal rights -- that moment will mark the failure of our constitutional system.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Eternal truths will be neither true nor eternal unless they have fresh meaning for every new social situation.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

No democracy can long survive which does not accept as fundamental to its very existence the recognition of the rights of minorities.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Peace, like charity, begins at home.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

A radical is a man with both feet firmly planted in the air.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

No political party has exclusive patent rights on prosperity.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

The forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Whoever seeks to set one race against another seeks to enslave all races.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

A reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

If we can boondoggle ourselves out of this depression, that word is going to be enshrined in the hearts of the American people for years to come.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Today we are faced with the preeminent fact that, if civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships... the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world, at peace.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Be sincere, be brief; be seated.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

— 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

Never underestimate a man who overestimates himself.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginnings of all wars.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

War is a contagion.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

On this tenth day of June, 1940, the hand that held the dagger has struck it into the back of its neighbor.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

A great man left a watchword that we can well repeat: There is no indispensable man.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

It is said that Napoleon lost the battle of Waterloo because he forgot his infantryhe staked too much upon the more spectacular but less substantial calvary. The present administration in Washington provides a close parallel. It has either forgotten or it does not want to remember the infantry of our economic army. These unhappy times call for the building of plans that rest upon the forgotten, the unorganized but the indispensable units of economic power, for plans like those of 1917 that build from the bottom up and not from the top down, that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

There are as many opinions as there are experts.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

They realize that in thirty-four months we have built up new instruments of public power. In the hands of a peoples Government this power is wholesome and proper. But in the hands of political puppets of an economic autocracy such power would provide shackles for the liberties of the people.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

We are a nation of many nationalities, many races, many religionsbound together by a single unity, the unity of freedom and equality. Whoever seeks to set one nationality against another, seeks to degrade all nationalities. Whoever seeks to set one race against another seeks to enslave all races. Whoever seeks to set one religion against another, seeks to destroy all religion.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

The frontier of America is on the Rhine.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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.

— 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

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

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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 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

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

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

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.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Perfectionism, no less than isolationism or imperialism or power politics, may obstruct the paths to international peace. Let us not forget that the retreat to isolationism a quarter of a century ago was started not by a direct attack against international cooperation but against the alleged imperfections of the peace.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

I suppose that for every half-hour speech that I make before a convention or over the radio, I put in ten hours preparing it.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt