Franklin D. Roosevelt Quotes

Quotes about:

• We must especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American Eagle in order to feather their own nests.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Selfish, Men, Eagles

  The Four Freedoms, delivered 6 January, 1941 (photo of FDR in 1936)

  419 Copy quote

• We are a nation of many nationalities, many races, many religions-bound together by a single unity, the unity of freedom and equality. Whoever seeks to set one nationality against another, seeks to degrade all nationalities.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  War, Race, Drug

  Campaign address, Brooklyn, New York, November 1, 1940.

  426 Copy quote

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

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Respect, Kindness, Character

  345 Copy quote

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

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Action, Ifs

  72 Copy quote

• The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Freedom, Power, Essence

  Roosevelt, Franklin D. (1941). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: F.D. Roosevelt, 1938, Volume 7”, p.305, Best Books on

  477 Copy quote

• Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Peace, Truth, Integrity

  Roosevelt, Franklin D. (1941). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: F.D. Roosevelt, 1939, Volume 8”, p.557, Best Books on

  353 Copy quote

• People acting together as a group can accomplish things which no individual acting alone could ever hope to bring about.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Wrestling, People, Acting

  338 Copy quote

• Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  99 Copy quote

• In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  War, Political, Politics

  259 Copy quote

• The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Inspirational, Leadership, Bullying

  First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1933 See Francis Bacon 7; Montaigne 4; Thoreau 16; Wellington 3

  327 Copy quote

• 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.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Money, Economic Inequality, History

  Second Inaugural Address, 20 Jan. 1937

  305 Copy quote

• Calm seas never made a good sailor

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Sea, Sailor, Calm

  79 Copy quote

• 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.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Country, Witty, Patriotic

  Franklin D. Roosevelt's Address at Marietta, Ohio, July 8, 1938.

  328 Copy quote

• 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

  Jobs, Freedom, People

  Franklin D. Roosevelt (1995). “The Essential Franklin Delano Roosevelt”, Gramercy

  362 Copy quote

• Never underestimate a man who overestimates himself.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Men, Vanity, Underestimate

  344 Copy quote

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

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Xenophobia, Patriotic, Usa

  Remarks before Daughters of the American Revolution Convention, Washington, D.C., 21 Apr. 1938. Often paraphrased as Roosevelt's addressing the DAR as "my fellow immigrants."

  402 Copy quote

• It is better to swallow words than to have to eat them later.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Humorous

  41 Copy quote
• 

  The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Inspirational, Motivational, Success

  Undelivered address for Jefferson Day, 13 Apr. 1945, final lines, in Public Papers (1950) vol. 13, p. 616

  120 Copy quote

• We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace - business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me - and I welcome their hatred.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  War, Hate, Struggle

  Franklin D. Roosevelt's Address at Madison Square Garden, New York City, October 31, 1936).

  254 Copy quote

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

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Success, Education, Real

  Roosevelt, Franklin D. (1941). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: F.D. Roosevelt, 1938, Volume 7”, p.538, Best Books on

  250 Copy quote

• 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

  Love, Marriage, Couple

  227 Copy quote

• Presidents are selected, not elected.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  President, Politics, Selected

  91 Copy quote

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

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Strength, Crush, Peace

  Radio talk, 11 Sept. 1941

  235 Copy quote

• 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

  Rights, Long, Democracy

  Roosevelt, Franklin D. (1941). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: F.D. Roosevelt, 1938, Volume 7”, p.401, Best Books on

  88 Copy quote

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

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Civilization, Justice, Diversity

  Greeting to the American Committee for Protection of Foreign-born, January 9, 1940.

  97 Copy quote

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