Franklin D. Roosevelt Quotes

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.

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

Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are.

One thing is sure. We have to do something. We have to do the best we know how at the moment... If it doesn't turn out right, we can modify it as we go along.

Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them.

Eternal truths will be neither true nor eternal unless they have fresh meaning for every new social situation.

Art is not a treasure in the past or an importation from another land, but part of the present life of all living and creating peoples.

I have an unshaken conviction that democracy can never be undermined if we maintain our library resources and a national intelligence capable of utilizing them.

Necessitous men are not free men.

There's nothing to fear but a wide receiver who can run a 100-yard dash in under 10 seconds.

I do not believe in communism any more than you do but there is nothing wrong with the Communists in this country. Several of the best friends I have got are Communists.

The only thing we have to fear is a giant wheelchair-crushing squid. Well... uh... actually, I guess that's the only thing I have to fear.

Every man has a right to life, and this means that he has also a right to make a comfortable living.

Buying and selling securities on the Stock Exchange do not start new industries. Big business never starts anything new. It merely absorbs, consolidates and profits at the expense of others.

Unless the peace that follows recognizes that the whole world is one neighborhood and does justice to the whole human race, the germs of another world war will remain as a constant threat to mankind.

Nationwide thinking, nationwide planning and nationwide action are the three great essentials to prevent nationwide crises for future generations to struggle through.

A Liberal is a man who uses his legs and his hands at the behest-at the command-of his head.

A great man left a watchword that we can well repeat: "There is no indispensable man"

A radical is a man with both feet firmly planted-in the air.

No political party has exclusive patent rights on prosperity.

I have a terrific headache.

The future lies with those wise political leaders who realize that the great public is interested more in government than in politics.

That is the spiral galaxy in Andromeda. It is as large as our Milky Way. It is one of a hundred million galaxies. It consists of one hundred billion suns. Now I think we are small enough.

There can be little doubt that in many ways the story of bridge building is the story of civilisation. By it we can readily measure an important part of a people's progress.

It isn't sufficient just to want - you've got to ask yourself what you are going to do to get the things you want.

Prosperous farmers mean more employment, more prosperity for the workers and the business men of every industrial area in the whole country.

No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it.

Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society.

So many figures are quoted to prove so many things. Sometimes it depends on what paper you read or what broadcast you listen in on.

Our handicaps exist only in our minds.

The fundamental idea...is that the country belongs to the people, that it is in process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us.

It is a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead - and find no one there.

I hope that you have re-read the Constitution of the United States in these past few weeks. Like the Bible, it ought to be read again and again.

The ultimate victory of tomorrow is democracy, and through democracy with education, for no people in all the world can be kept eternally ignorant or eternally enslaved.

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.

Wise and prudent men and intelligent conservatives have long known that in a changing world worthy institutions can be conserved only by adjusting them to the changing time.

In the field of world policy; I would dedicate this nation to the policy of the good neighbor.

Happiness is not merely money, which is fun for effort and achievement

We cannot always build a future for our youth, but we can always build our youth for the future.

The United States Constitution has proved itself the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written.

The hopes of the Republic cannot forever tolerate either undeserved poverty or self-serving wealth.

It is the purpose of the government to see that not only the legitimate interests of the few are protected but that the welfare and rights of the many are conserved.

A good leader can't get too far ahead of his followers.

Labor Day symbolizes our determination to achieve an economic freedom for the average man which will give his political freedom realty.

Private enterprise is ceasing to be free enterprise. Private enterprise, indeed, became too private. It became privileged enterprise, not free enterprise.

I am a Christian and a Democrat, that's all.

Research is one of the Nation's very greatest resources and the role of the Federal Government in supporting and stimulating it needs to reexamined.

This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper.

All safe deposit boxes in banks or financial institutions have been sealed... and may only be opened in the presence of an agent of the I.R.S.

It has always seemed to me that the best symbol of common sense was a bridge.