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)

  422 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.

  430 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

  347 Copy quote

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

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Action, Ifs

  74 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

  478 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

  355 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

  103 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

  260 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

  332 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

  306 Copy quote

• Calm seas never made a good sailor

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Sea, Sailor, Calm

  81 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.

  329 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

  363 Copy quote

• Never underestimate a man who overestimates himself.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Men, Vanity, Underestimate

  345 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."

  403 Copy quote

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

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Humorous

  42 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).

  255 Copy quote

• We may not be able to prepare the future for our children, but we can at least prepare our children for the future.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Children, Educational, Future

  203 Copy quote

• I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded. I have seen men coughing out their gassed lungs. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed. I have seen 200 limping, exhausted men come out of line—the survivors of a regiment of 1,000 that went forward 48 hours before. I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Mother, Running, Children

  Speech at Chautauqua, NY, 14 Aug. 1936, in Public Papers (1936) vol. 5, p. 289

  61 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

• Remember you are just an extra in everyone else's play.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Remember You, Remembers You, Play

  20 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

  228 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

  252 Copy quote

• These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the flag and the Constitution stand for.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  America, Liberty, Complaining

  Franklin D. Roosevelt's Speech at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 27, 1936.

  58 Copy quote

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