Franklin D. Roosevelt Quotes

356 Sourced Quotes

On each national day of inauguration since 1789, the people have renewed their sense of dedication to the United States.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Too often in recent history liberal governments have been wrecked on rocks of loose fiscal policy.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
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.

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

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Yes, we believe that the Nazis and the Fascists have asked for it — and they are going to get it.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
To us there has come a time, in the midst of swift happenings, to pause for a moment and take stock—to recall what our place in history has been, and to rediscover what we are and what we may be. If we do not, we risk the real peril of inaction.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
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.

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

Franklin D. Roosevelt
I think I have a right to resent, to object to libelous statements about my dog.

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

Franklin D. Roosevelt
There has been one persistent theme through all Axis propaganda. This theme has been that Americans are admittedly rich, that Americans have considerable industrial power - but that Americans are soft and decadent, that they cannot and will not unite and work and fight.... Let them tell that to the Marines!

Franklin D. Roosevelt
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.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
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.

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

Franklin D. Roosevelt
In my Inaugural I laid down the simple proposition that nobody is going to starve in this country. It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By "business" I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level-I mean the wages of decent living.

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

Franklin D. Roosevelt
There is nothing I love as much as a good fight.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
The true conservative is the man who has a real concern for injustices and takes thought against the day of reckoning.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Perfectionism, no less than isolationism or imperialism or power politics, may obstruct the paths to international peace. Let us not forget that the retreat to isolationism a quarter of a century ago was started not by a direct attack against international cooperation but against the alleged imperfections of the peace.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Instinctively we recognized a deeper need—the need to find through government the instrument of our united purpose to solve for the individual the ever-rising problems of a complex civilization. Repeated attempts at their solution without the aid of government had left us baffled and bewildered.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
It is fun to be in the same decade with you.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
To a great extent the achievements of invention, of mechanical and of artistic creation, must of necessity, and rightly, be individual rather than governmental. It is the self-reliant pioneer in every enterprise who beats the path along which American civilization has marched. Such individual effort is the glory of America.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
The work, my friend, is peace. More than an end of this war—an end to the beginnings of all wars.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Social unrest and a deepening sense of unfairness are dangers to our national life which we must minimize by rigorous methods. People know that vast personal incomes come not only through the effort or ability or luck of those who receive them, but also because of the opportunities for advantage which Government itself contributes. Therefore, the duty rests upon the Government to restrict such incomes by very high taxes.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
I don't want to see a single war millionaire created in the United States as a result of this world disaster.

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

Franklin D. Roosevelt
I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
We know it because, if we look below the surface, we sense it still spreading on every continent — for it is the most humane, the most advanced, and in the end the most unconquerable of all forms of human society.

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

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

Franklin D. Roosevelt