Who is Franklin Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, often referred to by his initials FDR, was the thirty-second President of the United States. Elected to four terms in office, he served from 1933 to 1945, and is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms of office. He was a central figure of the 20th century during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war.
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Roosevelt created the New Deal to provide relief for the unemployed, recovery of the economy, and reform of the economic and banking systems. Although recovery of the economy was incomplete until almost 1940, many programs initiated continue to have instrumental roles in the nation’s commerce, such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). One of his most important legacies is the Social Security system.
Franklin Roosevelt quotes
1. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
2. Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.
3. I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.
4. When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.
5. We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.
6. 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
7. 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.
8. I’m not the smartest fellow in the world, but I can sure pick smart colleagues.
9. To reach a port we must set sail –
Sail, not tie at anchor
Sail, not drift.
10. 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.
11. Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.
12. 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.
13. Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.
14. The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.
15. Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.
16. Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.
17. If you treat people right they will treat you right … ninety percent of the time.
18. There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.
19. Presidents are selected, not elected.
20. A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor
21. 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
22. Be sincere, Be brief, Be seated.
23. Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds
24. We have always known that heedless self interest was bad morals, we now know that it is bad economics.
25. A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward
26. 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.
27. The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power…. Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing.
28. Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth
29. 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
30. 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
31. 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.
32. The Truth is found when men (and Women) are free to pursue it.
33. 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.
34. 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.
35. 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.
36. 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
37. Great power involves great responsibility
38. I think we consider too much the luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm
39. War is young men dying and old men talking
40. In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved
41. We cannot always build a future for our youth, but we can always build our youth for the future.
42. You are only an extra in everyone else’s play.
43. Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that
men have died to win them.
44. The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson.
45. There is nothing so American as our national parks. The scenery and the wildlife are native. The fundamental idea behind the parks is native. It is, in brief, that the country belongs to the people, that it is in process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us. The parks stand as the outward symbal of the great human principle.
46. Organized money hates me–and I welcome their hatred!
47. 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.
48. 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.
49. 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.
50. Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society.
51. I sometimes think that the saving grace of America lies in the fact that the overwhelming majority of Americans are possessed of two great qualities- a sense of humor and a sense of proportion.
52. 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.
53. I love it–I just love it.
54. We and all others who believe in freedom as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.
55. 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.
56. In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.
57. Today we are faced with the pre-eminent fact that if civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships, the ability of all peoples of all kins to live together and to work together in the same world at peace.
58. The country needs and unless I mistake its temper the country demands bold persistent experimentation. 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.
59. 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.
60. We have learned that we cannot live alone, at peace; that our own well-being is dependent on the well-being of nations far away. We have learned that we must live as men, and not as ostriches nor as dogs in the manger. We have learned to be citizens of the world, members of the human community.
