When peace has been broken anywhere, the peace of countries everywhere is in danger.
¶ "Fireside Chat" (3 Sep 1939)
Quotations by ...
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) US President (1933-1945)
Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves — and the only way they could do this is by not voting.
¶ (Attributed)
The future lies with those wise political leaders who realize that the great public is interested more in Government than in politics.
¶ (Attributed)
The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic State itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism -- ownership of government by an individual, by a group or by any controlling private power.
¶ (Attributed)
Be sincere; be brief; be seated.
¶ (Attributed)
Advice on speechmaking to his son, James
No democracy can long survive which does not accept as fundamental to its very existence the recognition of the rights of minorities.
¶ (Attributed)
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.
¶ Address to the National Education Association, New York City (30 Jun 1938)
The millions who are in want will not stand idly by silently forever while the things to satisfy their needs are within easy reach.
¶ Commencement Speech at Oglethorpe U. (22 May 1932)
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.
¶ Commencement Speech at Oglethorpe U. (22 May1932)
So, first of all, 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.
¶ First Inaugural Address (4 Mar 1933)
We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization.
¶ Letter to Dr. William Allan Neilson (9 Jan 1940)
http://www.bartleby.com/73/225.html
We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics.
¶ Second Inaugural Address (20 Jan 1937)
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.
¶ Second Inaugural Address (20 Jan 1937)
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.
¶ Speech accepting renomination for President (27 Jun 1936)
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 constant omission of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.
¶ Speech to the Democratic National Convention, Philadelphia (27 Jun 1936)
Quoted in The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, ed. Samuel I. Rosenman (1938-1950)
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.
¶ State of the Union address (6 Jan 1945)
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WIST is my collection of quotations I find meaningful, moving, amusing (intended or not), well-phrased, and/or to which I just say I "Wish I'd Said That." But just because I quote it here doesn't mean I actually agree with it. If you have any comments, corrections, or suggestions, please don't hesitate to
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