Roosevelt, Franklin D. quotes

1882-1945 Thirty-second President of the USA

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.
Common Sense

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 principals and aims as two peas in the same pod.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Elections

The United States Constitution has proved itself the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Constitutions

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.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Economy and Economics

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

If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Failure

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

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

Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Happiness

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

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Fear

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.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Giving

It is the duty of the President to propose and it is the privilege of the Congress to dispose.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Government

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.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Freedom

I have no expectation of making a hit every time I come to bat.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Expectation

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.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Freedom

Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Freedom

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.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Majority

Our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Leaders and Leadership

Eternal truths will be neither true nor eternal unless they have fresh meaning for every new social situation.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Meaning of Life

It is a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead -- and find no one there.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Leaders and Leadership

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...
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Love

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.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Kindness

There is no indispensable man.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Job

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

A radical is a man with both feet firmly planted in the air.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Politicians and Politics

Peace, like charity, begins at home.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Peace

The truth is found when men are free to pursue it.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Truth

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

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

Whoever seeks to set one race against another seeks to enslave all races.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Prejudice

The forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Poverty and The Poor

No political party has exclusive patent rights on prosperity.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Politicians and Politics

Be sincere, be brief; be seated.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Speakers and Speaking

never before have we had so little time in which to do so much.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Time and Time Management

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.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Recession

The ablest man I ever met is the man you think you are.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Self-esteem

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.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Relationships

A reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Reactionaries

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.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Security

Taxes, are the dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Taxes and Taxation

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.
Unemployment

I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Recession

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.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
America

This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
America

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.
Belief

The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Ecology

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

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.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Aid and Assistance

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

Do Something. If it works, do more of it. If it doesn t, do something else.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Action

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

If I went to work in a factory the first thing I d do is join a union.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Work

Never underestimate a man who overestimates himself.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Vanity

War is a contagion.
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
War