Franklin D. Roosevelt Quotes

We must save the Constitution from the [Supreme] Court and the Court from itself.

We are fighting to save a great and precious form of government for ourselves and for the world.

When peace has been broken anywhere, the peace of all countries is in danger.

Peace can endure only so long as humanity really insists upon it, and is willing to work for it and sacrifice for it.

Self-help and self-control are the essence of the American tradition.

This nation asks for action, and action now.

It is highly unlikely that an airplane, or fleet of them, could ever sink a fleet of Navy vessels under battle conditions.

I ask especially that no state shall, by law or otherwise, authorize the return of the saloon, either in its old form or in some modern guise.

Goods produced under conditions which do not meet a rudimentary standard to decency should be regarded as contraband and not allowed to pollute the channels of international commerce.

Any Government, like any family, can for a year spend a little more than it earns. But you and I know that a continuation of that habit means the poorhouse.

To carry adequate life insurance is a moral obligation incumbent upon the great majority of citizens.

The American people want their government to act, and not merely to talk, whenever and wherever there is a threat to world peace.

The core of our defense is the faith we have in the institutions we defend.

I hope that your committee will not permit doubt as to constitutionality, however reasonable, to block the suggested legislation

I am much interested and deeply impressed by what he has accomplished and by his evidenced honest purpose of restoring Italy and seeking to prevent general European trouble.

Books cannot be killed by fire.

As a nation, we may take pride in the fact that we are softhearted; but we cannot afford to be soft-headed.

Democracy alone, of all forms of government, enlists the full force of men's enlightened will.

The success of our whole national program depends, of course, on the cooperation of the public--on its intelligent support and its use of a reliable system.

Economic diseases are highly communicable. It follows therefore that the economic health of every country is a proper matter of concern to all its neighbors, near or distant.

All of us in all the Americas will be living at the point of a gun.

Our government is based on the belief that a people can be both strong and free, that civilized men need no restraint but that imposed by themselves against abuse of freedom.

The driving force of a nation lies in its spiritual purpose, made effective by free, tolerant but unremitting national will.

Are you laboring under the impression that I read these memoranda of yours? I can't even lift them.

You cannot organize civilization around the core of militarism and at the same time expect reason to control human destinies.

I propose to create a Civilian Conservation Corps to be used in simple work...More important, however, than the material gains will be the moral and spiritual value of such work.

I call for effort, courage, sacrifice, devotion. Granting the love of freedom, all of these are possible. And the love of freedom is still fierce and steady in the nation today. June 10, 1940

New Orleans makes it possible to go to Europe without ever leaving the United States.

The chief problem is, of course, whether the marching of the general spirit of things is heading consciously or sub- consciously toward an idea of extension of boundaries.

The first twelve years are the hardest.

Frankly, I do not know how to effect a permanency in American foreign policy.

I love it--I just love it.

Since I am used to speaking in public, I know that it is useless.

I fearthat both dictators [Hitler and Mussolini] think their present methods are succeeding because of the gains they have made in Albania, Hungary and Yugoslavia.

It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management.

It is time to extend planning to a wider field, in this instance comprehending in one great project many states directly concerned with the basin of one of our greatest rivers.

The Truth is found when men (and Women) are free to pursue it.

Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.

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

War is young men dying and old men talking

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.Freedom

It is the purpose of 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.

If you treat people right they will treat you right ... ninety percent of the time.

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

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

People are not prisoners of fate, but prisoners of their own minds.

I sometimes think that the saving grace of America lies in the fact that the overwhelming majority of Americans are possessed of two great qualities- a sense of humor and a sense of proportion.

Some people can never understand that you have to wait, even for the best of things, until the right time comes.

When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.

To reach a port we must set sail –Sail, not tie at anchorSail, not drift.