100 Quotes by Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt, often referred to as FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a transformative figure during one of the nation's most challenging periods. Serving an unprecedented four terms in office, Roosevelt led the country through the Great Depression and World War II. His New Deal policies aimed to alleviate the economic devastation of the Depression, introducing a series of social and economic reforms that included Social Security and banking regulations. Roosevelt's ability to connect with the American people through his fireside chats, his calm and resolute leadership during the war, and his role in founding the United Nations solidified his place as one of the greatest American presidents. His legacy is marked by his ability to navigate and guide the nation during times of crisis, shaping the modern role of the federal government in promoting social welfare and global cooperation.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Quotes
To reach a port we must set sail – Sail, not tie at anchor. Sail, not drift. (Meaning)
A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor. (Quote Meaning)
When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on. (Meaning)
In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved. (Quote Meaning)
Confidence thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. (Meaning)
I'm not the smartest fellow in the world, but I can sure pick smart colleagues. (Quote Meaning)
Happiness lies in the joy of achievement. (Meaning)
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.
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.
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.
Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists. (Quote Meaning)
We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way. The third is freedom from want. The fourth is freedom from fear.
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.
Never underestimate a man who overestimates himself.
Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.
People acting together as a group can accomplish things which no individual acting alone could ever hope to bring about.
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. (Meaning)
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.
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. (Quote Meaning)
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. (Meaning)
In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.
Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.
When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck to crush him.
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.
We may not be able to prepare the future for our children, but we can at least prepare our children for the future.
What America needs now is a drink.
Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.
Freedom of conscience, of education, of speech, of assembly are among the very fundamentals of democracy and all of them would be nullified should freedom of the press ever be successfully challenged.
The only limit to our realization of tomorrow is our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith. (Quote Meaning)
There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still. (Meaning)
We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.
We are trying to construct a more inclusive society. We are going to make a country in which no one is left out.
Go for the moon. If you don't get it, you'll still be heading for a star. Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of the creative effort.
No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country... By living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level - I mean the wages of decent living.
We, and all others who believe in freedom as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.
We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization.
Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further. (Quote Meaning)
In our democracy officers of the government are the servants, and never the masters of the people.
I am neither bitter nor cynical but I do wish there was less immaturity in political thinking.
This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.
No democracy can long survive which does not accept as fundamental to its very existence the recognition of the rights of minorities.
If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace.
Presidents are selected, not elected.
Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them." - Franklin D. Roosevelt
A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward.
The Social Security Act offers to all our citizens a workable and working method of meeting urgent present needs and of forestalling future need. It utilizes the familiar machinery of our Federal-State government to promote the common welfare and the economic stability of the Nation.
Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.
In these days of difficulty, we Americans everywhere must and shall choose the path of social justice…, the path of faith, the path of hope, and the path of love toward our fellow man.
Physical strength can never permanently withstand the impact of spiritual force. (Meaning)
That, in its essence, is Fascism — ownership of Government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.
The principle on which this country was founded and by which it has always been governed is that Americanism is a matter of the mind and heart; Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry.
We know now that government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob.
All of our people all over the country-except the pure-blooded Indians-are immigrants or descendants of immigrants, including even those who came over here on the Mayflower.
Governments can err, Presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted in different scales. Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the constant omission of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.
The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the goverment.
"Appeasement" is the policy of feeding your friends to a crocodile, one at a time, in hopes that the crocodile will eat you last.
Freedom of the press is essential to the preservation of a democracy; but there is a difference between freedom and license. Editorialists who tell downright lies in order to advance their own agendas do more to discredit the press than all the censors in the world.
The best customer of American industry is the well paid worker.
Peace, like charity, begins at home.
We think of our land and water and human resources not as static and sterile possessions but as life giving assets to be directed by wise provisions for future days.
Calm seas never made a good sailor.
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.
Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle.
The truth is found when men are free to pursue it.
More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginning of all wars - yes, an end to this brutal, inhuman and thoroughly impractical method of settling the differences between governments.
If you treat people right they will treat you right... ninety percent of the time.
The Nation that destroys its soil destroys itself. (Quote Meaning)
Democracy can thrive only when it enlists the devotion of those whom Lincoln called the common people. Democracy can hold that devotion only when it adequately respects their dignity by so ordering society as to assure to the masses of men and women reasonable security and hope for themselves and for their children.
No government can help the destinies of people who insist in putting sectional and class consciousness ahead of general weal.
Books can not be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can abolish memory... In this war, we know, books are weapons. And it is a part of your dedication always to make them weapons for man's freedom.
There should be no bitterness or hate where the sole thought is the welfare of the United States of America. No man can occupy the office of President without realizing that he is President of all the people.
We need enthusiasm, imagination and the ability to face facts, even unpleasant ones, bravely. We need to correct, by drastic means if necessary, the faults in our economic system from which we now suffer. We need the courage of the young. Yours is not the task of making your way in the world, but the task of remaking the world which you will find before you. May every one of us be granted the courage, the faith and the vision to give the best that is in us to that remaking!
The whole world is one neighborhood.
The Democratic Party will live and continue to receive the support of the majority of Americans just so long as it remains a liberal party.
It will never be possible for any length of time for any group of the American people, either by reason of wealth or learning or inheritance or economic power, to retain any mandate, any permanent authority to arrogate to itself the political control of American public life.
An election cannot give a country a firm sense of direction if it has two or more national parties which merely have different names but are as alike in their principles and aims as peas in the same pod.
We have always known that heedless self interest was bad morals, we now know that it is bad economics.
No greater tragedy exists in modern civilization than the aged, worn-out worker who after a life of ceaseless effort and useful productivity must look forward for his declining years to a poorhouse. A modern social consciousness demands a more humane and efficient arrangement.
No country, however rich, can afford the waste of its human resources. Demoralization caused by vast unemployment is our greatest extravagance. Morally, it is the greatest menace to our social order.
The loneliest feeling in the world is when you think you are leading the parade and turn to find that no one is following you. No president who badly misguesses public opinion will last very long.
It is one of the characteristics of a free and democratic nation that it have free and independent labor unions.
It is better to swallow words than to have to eat them later.
The motto of war is: "Let the strong survive; let the weak die." The motto of peace is: "Let the strong help the weak to survive."
It is common sense to take a method and try it. (Meaning)
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds. (Quote Meaning)
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach. (Meaning)
To some generations much is given. Of other generations, much is expected.
Self-interest is the enemy of all true affection. (Meaning)
Above all, try something.
We may make mistakes-but they must never be mistakes which result from faintness of heart or abandonment of moral principle.
The fate of America cannot depend on any one man. The greatness of America is grounded in principles and not on any single personality.
A radical is a man with both feet firmly planted in the air. (Quote Meaning)
Among American citizens, there should be no forgotten men and no forgotten races.
Real estate cannot be lost or stolen, nor can it be carried away. Purchased with common sense, paid for in full, and managed with reasonable care, it is about the safest investment in the world.
The Presidency is not merely an administrative office. Thats the least of it. It is more than an engineering job, efficient or inefficient. It is pre-eminently a place of moral leadership. All our great Presidents were leaders of thought at times when certain historic ideas in the life of the nation had to be clarified.
We defend and we build a way of life, not for America alone, but for all mankind.
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. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike.
More striking still, it appeared that, if the process of concentration goes on at the same rate, at the end of another century we shall have all American industry controlled by a dozen corporations and run by perhaps a hundred men. Put plainly, we are steering a steady course toward economic oligarchy, if we are not there already.
We know that equality of individual ability has never existed and never will, but we do insist that equality of opportunity still must be sought.
The presidency is not merely an administrative office...It is pre-eminently a place of moral leadership.
Organized money hates me--and I welcome their hatred!
Those newspapers of the nation which most loudly cried dictatorship against me would have been the first to justify the beginnings of dictatorship by somebody else.
We, too, born to freedom, and believing in freedom, are willing to fight to maintain freedom. We, and all others who believe as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.
Against naked force the only possible defense is naked force. The aggressor makes the rules for such a war; the defenders have no alternative but matching destruction with more destruction, slaughter with greater slaughter.
Hitler built a fortress around Europe, but he forgot to put a roof on it.
The duty of the State toward the citizen is the duty of the servant to its master.... One of the duties of the State is that of caring for those of its citizens who find themselves the victims of such adverse circumstances as makes them unable to obtain even the necessities for mere existence without the aid of others.... To these unfortunate citizens aid must be extended by government--not as a matter of charity but as a matter of social duty.
Government cannot close its eyes to the pollution of waters, to the erosion of soil, to the slashing of forests any more than it can close its eyes to the need for slum clearance and schools.
No business is above Government; and Government must be empowered to deal adequately with any business that tries to rise above Government.
I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made. (Meaning)
Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us.
I want to preach a new doctrine. A complete separation of business and government.
The first theory is that if we make the rich richer, somehow they will let a part of their prosperity trickle down to the rest of us. The second theory was the theory that if we make the average of mankind comfortable and secure, their prosperity will rise upward through the ranks.
The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the larger centers has owned the Government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson...
We have nothing to fear but fear itself. (Quote Meaning)
I see an America whose rivers and valleys and lakes hills and streams and plains the mountains over our land and nature's wealth deep under the earth are protected as the rightful heritage of all the people.
People die, but books never die.
The barrier to success is not something which exists in the real world; it is composed purely and simply of doubts about ability.
The virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea.
Liberty requires opportunity to make a living--a living decent according to the standard of the time, a living which gives a man not only enough to live by, but something to live for.
Be sincere; be brief; be seated.
There are as many opinions as there are experts.
Do the best you can do and wait the results in peace.
They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate.
The school is the last expenditure upon which America should be willing to economize.
Men and nature must work hand in hand. The throwing out of balance of the resources of nature throws out of balance also the lives of men.
The handling of our forests as a continuous, renewable resource means permanent employment and stability to our country life. The forests are also needed for mitigating extreme climatic fluctuations, holding the soil on the slopes, retaining the moisture in the ground, and controlling the equable flow of water in our streams.
Remember you are just an extra in everyone else's play.
The real safeguard of democracy is education.
Never before have we had so little time in which to do so much.
Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are.
Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.
Necessitous men are not free men.
No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it.
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.
In this nation I see tens of millions of its citizens, a substantial part of its whole population, who at this very moment are denied the greater part of what the very lowest standards of today call the necessities of life. I see one third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished. 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 too little.
Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society.
It is a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead - and find no one there.
A good leader can't get too far ahead of his followers.
History proves that dictatorships do not grow out of strong and successful governments, but out of weak and helpless ones. If by democratic methods people get a government strong enough to protect them from fear and starvation, their democracy succeeds; but if they do not, they grow impatient. Therefore, the only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over its government.
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.
Sports is the very fiber of all we stand for. It keeps our spirits alive.
The democratic aspiration is no mere recent phase in human history. It is human history.
If you have spent two years in bed trying to wiggle your big toe, everything else seems easy.
We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a nation, without reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic. Where we have been the truest and most consistent in obeying its precepts, we have attained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity.
Change is like fire- if uncontrolled, it will consume us.
We know that enduring peace cannot be bought at the cost of other people's freedom.
― Franklin D. Roosevelt Quotes
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
