Franklin Quotes - Page 3

• My own special relationship with America began at an early age. My father, a fellow journalist, named me after Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

  Lionel Barber

  Father, America, Special

  Lionel Barber's Fulbright lecture, www.theguardian.com. September 14, 2011.

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• Baseball may be our national pastime, but the age-old tradition of taking a swing at Congress is a sport with even deeper historical roots in the American experience. Since the founding of our country, citizens from Ben Franklin to David Letterman have made fun of their elected officials.

  Evan Bayh

  Sports, Country, Baseball

  "Why I’m Leaving the Senate" by Evan Bayh, www.nytimes.com. February 20, 2010.

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• Few expected very much of Franklin Roosevelt on Inauguration Day in 1933. Like Barack Obama seventy-six years later, he was succeeding a failed Republican president, and Americans had voted for change. What that change might be Roosevelt never clearly said, probably because he himself didn't know.

  Russell Baker

  Years, President, Might

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• My prose style at this time was a stomach-twisting blend of the Bible, Carl Sandburg, H.L. Mencken, Jeffrey Farnol, Christopher Morley, Samuel Pepys, and Franklin Pierce Adams imitating Samuel Pepys. I was quite apt to throw in a "bless the mark" at any spot, and to begin a sentence with "Lord" comma.

  E. B. White

  Writing, Style, Lord

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• A President Roosevelt comes only once in a century. I believe God knew and does know of the need of the world at this moment. I don't believe President Roosevelt is an accident in time, or that it is an accident that he is President for a third time. I believe that Franklin D. Roosevelt truly is the voice of liberty in the world.

  Lyndon B. Johnson

  Believe, Greatness, Destiny

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• Franklin may . . . be considered one of the founding fathers of American democracy, since no democratic government can last long without conciliation and compromise.

  Samuel Eliot Morison

  Father, Government, Long

  Samuel Eliot Morison, Emily Morison Beck (1977). “Sailor Historian: The Best of Samuel Eliot Morison”

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• Aretha Franklin's 'Let Me in Your Life' is one of the few recent R&B albums that places the emphasis entirely and deservedly on a voice. Many R&B producers have been making records on which the singer is outshined by the song, the arrangement and the sound.

  Jon Landau

  Song, Voice, Sound

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• I know some say, let us have good laws, and no matter for the men that execute them: but let them consider, that though good laws do well, good men do better: for good laws may want good men, and be abolished or evaded [invaded in Franklin's print] by ill men; but good men will never want good laws, nor suffer ill ones.

  Patrick Henry

  Men, Law, Voting

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• I think the best singers in the world, historically, are American. Britain's got its fair share, as well, but some of the greatest singers, ever, whether you're talking about Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey or Aretha Franklin, are from the legacy here.

  Simon Cowell

  Thinking, Talking, Legacy

  "Britney Spears and Simon Cowell Talk THE X FACTOR Season Two". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. July 25, 2012.

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• Atlantic's Jerry Wexler believes first-rate records are made by first-rate voices. He certainly has worked with enough of them: Clyde McPhatter, Joe Turner, La Vern Baker, Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Solomon Burke, Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin.

  Jon Landau

  Believe, Voice, Rays

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• Here is a pretty good rule of thumb for Democratic Presidents: if it didn't work for Franklin D. Roosevelt, who won four terms and a World War, it probably won't work for you either.

  Jon Meacham

  War, President, Thumbs

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• I am a huge admirer of Franklin Roosevelt's, and I believe social security has done untold good in alleviating the once-widespread issue of poverty among the elderly. FDR believed in the greatness and generosity of Americans - but he was also a cold-blooded politician.

  Jon Meacham

  Believe, Greatness, Elderly

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• I am a registered Democrat who is determined to return my party to the proletarian principles of the Franklin D. Roosevelt era.

  Camille Paglia

  Party, Return, Principles

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• The great leaders of the second world war alliance, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, understood the twin sides of destruction and salvation. Their war aims were not only to defeat fascism, but to create a world of shared prosperity.

  Jeffrey Sachs

  War, Leader, Alliances

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• In the end, the sign of Aretha Franklin's artistry is that she always leaves her mark - first, on the music, then on us.

  Jon Landau

  Firsts, Ends, Mark

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• Franklin Roosevelt said the test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance to those who have much; it is whether we provide enough to those who have too little. This reconciliation package fails that test as well.

  Patrick J. Kennedy

  Progress, Add, Littles

  Congressional Record, Volume 151, Part 19, p. 25337, November 08, 2005.

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• Women are a key part of the sound of the groups that accompany male singers like Kirk Franklin, Israel Houghton, and myself.

  Fred Hammond

  Keys, Israel, Sound

  "Fred Hammond on His New Group United Tenors, and the Return of the Male Gospel Ensemble". Interview with Nakiyah Hayling, www.essence.com. March 23, 2013.

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• As a writer, politician, scientist, and businessman, [Ben] Franklin had few equals among the educated of his day-though he left school at ten. (...)Boys like Andrew Carnegie who begged his mother not to send him to school and was well on his way to immortality and fortune at the age of thirteen, would be referred today for psychological counseling; Thomas Edison would find himself in Special Ed until his peculiar genius had been sufficiently tamed.

  John Taylor Gatto

  Mother, School, Boys

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• Which is more worthwhile earning: a large fortune or the esteem and gratitude of the nation? This question is prompted anew by the death of ex-Secretary of the Interior [Franklin K.] Lane. He remained in public service, doing most noble work, until his means became absolutely exhausted, and he died before having had the opportunity to reaccumulate any bank account.... He died leaving no estate whatsoever. Is what he did leave more to be desired, more to be coveted, than a fortune reaching into six or seven figures?

  B. C. Forbes

  Gratitude, Mean, Opportunity

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• Pennsylvania, the state that has produced two great men: Benjamin Franklin of Massachusetts, and Albert Gallatin of Switzerland.

  John James Ingalls

  Men, Two, Switzerland

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• Has President Bush exceeded his constitutional authority or acted illegally in authorizing wiretaps without a warrant? Benjamin Franklin would not have thought so.

  Pete du Pont

  President, Authority, Warrants

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• The scientists from Franklin to Morse were clear thinkers and did not produce erroneous theories. The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane. Today's scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality.

  Nikola Tesla

  Reality, Thinking, Insane

  "Radio Power Will Revolutionize the World". Modern Mechanics and Inventions, July 1934.

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• No man is truly free who is in financial bondage. 'Think what you do when you run in debt', said Benjamin Franklin, 'you give another power over your liberty.'

  Ezra Taft Benson

  Running, Religious, Men

  Ezra Taft Benson (1988). “The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson”, Bookcraft Pubs

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• Growing up in Cleveland, I learned about singing from my mother, who had once sung professionally and who admired Mahalia Jackson and Aretha Franklin.

  Tracy Chapman

  Mother, Growing Up, Singing

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• When you write biographies, whether it's about Ben Franklin or Einstein, you discover something amazing: They are human.

  Walter Isaacson

  Writing, Biographies, Humans

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