Franklin D. Roosevelt Quotes

356 Sourced Quotes

Freedom to learn is the first necessity of guaranteeing that man himself shall be self reliant enough to be free.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
These are bad days for all of us who remember always that when real world forces come into conflict, the final result is never as dark as we mortals guess it in very difficult days.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
We have our difficulties, true; but we are a wiser and a tougher nation than we were in 1932. Never have there been six years of such far flung internal preparedness in all of history. And this has been done without any dictator's power to command, without conscription of labor or confiscation of capital, without concentration camps and without a scratch on freedom of speech, freedom of the press or the rest of the Bill of Rights.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Your profits are going to be cut down to a reasonably low level by taxation. Your income will be subject to higher taxes. Indeed in these days, when every available dollar should go to the war effort, I do not think that any American citizen should have a net income in excess of $25,000 per year after payment of taxes.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
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.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
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.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
We know that there are chiselers. At the bottom of every case of criticism and obstruction we have found some selfish interest, some private axe to grind.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
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.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
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.

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

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Of course we will continue to work for cheaper electricity in the homes and on the farms of America; for better and cheaper transportation; for low interest rates; for sounder home financing; for better banking; for the regulation of security issues; for reciprocal trade among nations and for the wiping out of slums. And my friends, for all of these we have only begun to fight.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
For every advance that the Japanese have made since they started their frenzied career of conquest, they have had to pay a very heavy toll in warships, in transports, in planes, and in men. They are feeling the effects of those losses.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
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.

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

Franklin D. Roosevelt
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.

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

Franklin D. Roosevelt
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.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
All private plans, all private lives, have been in a sense repealed by an overriding public danger.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
The most difficult place in the world to get a clear and open perspective of the country as a whole is Washington.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Patents are the key to our technology; technology is the key to production.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
In the final analysis, the progress of our civilization will be retarded if any large body of citizens falls behind. Without the help of thousands of others, any one of us would die, naked and starved.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
There comes a time in the affairs of men when they must prepare to defend not their homes alone but the tenets of faith and humanity on which their churches, their governments and their very foundations are set. The defense of religion, of democracy and of good faith among nations is all the same fight. To save one, we must now make up our minds to save all.

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

Franklin D. Roosevelt
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.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
It is one of the characteristics of a free and democratic nation that it have free and independent labor unions.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Peace, like war, can succeed only where there is a will to enforce it, and where there is available power to enforce it.

Franklin D. Roosevelt