Franklin D. Roosevelt

Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

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

Preparation for defense is an inalienable prerogative of a sovereign state.

We have always held to the hope the belief the conviction that there is a better life a better world beyond the horizon.

No group and no government can properly prescribe precisely what should constitute the body of knowledge with which true education is concerned.

Whoever seeks to set one religion against another seeks to destroy all religion.

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 school is the last expenditure upon which America should be willing to economize.

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

Confidence... thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live.

A good leader cant get too far ahead of his followers.

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.

Yesterday, December seventh, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. We will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God.

Happiness if not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.

To reach a port, we must sail - sail, not tie at anchor - sail, not drift.

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

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself nameless unreasoning unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

Im not the smartest fellow in the world but I can sure pick smart colleagues.

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

Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we forget in time that men have died to win them.

Selfishness is the only real atheism; aspiration, unselfishness, the only real religion.

The virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea.

Confidence thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live.

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.

It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

We must lay hold of the fact that economic laws are not made by nature. They are made by human beings.

The point in history at which we stand is full of promise and danger. The world will either move forward toward unity and widely shared prosperity - or it will move apart.

There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.

But while they prate of economic laws, men and women are starving. We must lay hold of the fact that economic laws are not made by nature. They are made by human beings.

I do not look upon these United States as a finished product. We are still in the making.

It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails admit it frankly and try another but above all try something.

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.

In a democratic nation power must be linked with responsibility and obliged to defend and justify itself within the framework of the general good.

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

Men are not prisoners of fate but only prisoners of their own minds.

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.

We continue to recognize the greater ability of some to earn more than others. But we do assert that the ambition of the individual to obtain for him a proper security is an ambition to be preferred to the appetite for great wealth and great power.

Yesterday, December seventh, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.

You sometimes find something good in the lunatic fringe. In fact we have got as part of our social and economic government today a whole lot of things which in my boyhood were considered lunatic fringe and yet they are now part of everyday life.

I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.

Self-interest is the enemy of all true affection.

Put two or three men in positions of conflicting authority. This will force them to work at loggerheads, allowing you to be the ultimate arbiter.

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

Our national determination to keep free of foreign wars and foreign entanglements cannot prevent us from feeling deep concern when ideals and principles that we have cherished are challenged.

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.

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.

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.

Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off.

Take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly, and try another. But by all means, try something.

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

There is nothing I love as much as a good fight.

In our seeking for economic and political progress, we all go up - or else we all go down.

A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.

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.

Confidence... thrives on honesty on honor on the sacredness of obligations on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live.

Never underestimate a man who overestimates himself.

A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.

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

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.

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.

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 principals and aims as two peas in the same pod.

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.

Taxes are paid in the sweat of every man who labors.

In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.

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

Happiness is not in the mere possession of money it lies in the joy of achievement in the thrill of creative effort.

Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy therefore is education.

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

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.

I'm not the smartest fellow in the world, but I can sure pick smart colleagues.

Physical strength can never permanently withstand the impact of spiritual force.

I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm.

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.

The truth is found when men are free to pursue it.

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.

We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.

This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.

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

We have nothing to fear but missing our massage appointment time.

In our personal ambitions we are individualists. But in our seeking for economic and political progress as a nation, we all go up or else all go down as one people.

I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.

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

I am neither bitter nor cynical but I do wish there was less immaturity in political thinking.

The overwhelming majority of americans are possessed of two great qualities a sense of humor and a sense of proportion.

Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle.

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

In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.

Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch.

When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck to crush him.

Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further but cooperation which is the thing we must strive for today begins where competition leaves off.

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.

It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

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

We are trying to construct a more inclusive society. We are going to make a country in which no one is left out.

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.

Be sincere; be brief; be seated.

Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.

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

Don't forget what I discovered that over ninety percent of all national deficits from 1921 to 1939 were caused by payments for past, present, and future wars.