Home > Author > Franklin D. Roosevelt
1 " I'm not the smartest fellow in the world, but I can sure pick smart colleagues. "
― Franklin D. Roosevelt
2 " The Truth is found when men (and Women) are free to pursue it. "
3 " Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights and keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose. To that high concept there can be no end save victory. "
4 " Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. "
5 " Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort. "
6 " First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. "
7 " Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education. "
8 " 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. "
9 " A war of ideas can no more be won without books than a naval war can be won without ships. Books, like ships, have the toughest armor, the longest cruising range, and mount the most powerful guns. "
10 " I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made. "
11 " I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded. I have seen men coughing out their gassed lungs. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed. I have seen 200 limping, exhausted men come out of line—the survivors of a regiment of 1,000 that went forward 48 hours before. I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war. "
12 " War is young men dying and old men talking "
13 " 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 "
14 " 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 government. "
15 " Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists. "
16 " Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference. "
17 " Presidents are selected, not elected. "
18 " For nearly four years you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up. We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace--business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. "
19 " A Radical is a man with both feet firmly planted--in the air. A Conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward. A Reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards. A Liberal is a man who uses his legs and his hands at the behest--at the command--of his head. "
20 " 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. "
― Franklin D. Roosevelt , Looking Forward
