Franklin D. Roosevelt quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Franklin D. Roosevelt on Wise Famous Quotes.

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.

As a nation we may take pride in the fact that we are softhearted; but we cannot afford to be soft-headed

A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward.

Do the best you can do and wait the results in peace.

Old women are the secret to the fluffiest cakes.

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

New ideas can be good and bad, just the same as old ones.

It has always seemed to me that the best symbol of common sense was a bridge.

I have a terrific pain in the back of my head.

The frontier of America is on the Rhine.

Calm seas never made a good sailor

Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are.

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.

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.

I have no expectation of making a hit every time I come to bat,

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

Freedom of speech is of no use to a man who has nothing to say and freedom of worship is of no use to a man who has lost his God.

In the formative days of the Republic, the directing influence the Bible exercised upon the fathers of the Nation is conspicuously evident ...

Men and nature must work hand in hand. The throwing out of balance of the resources of nature throws out of balance also the lives of men.

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

People die, but books never die. No man and no force can abolish memory.

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

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

I believe that in every country the people themselves are more peaceably and liberally inclined than their governments.

It is a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead - and find no one there.

It's a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead
and to find no one there.

Man's desire to be remembered is colossal.

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

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.

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

A reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards.

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

The only thing we have to fear ... is audiovisual glitches at our annual event.

To some generations much is given. Of other generations, much is expected.

I never forget that I live in a house owned by all the American people and that I have been given their trust.

The real safeguard of democracy is education.

Lord, reform Thy world, beginning with me.

No democracy can long survive which does not accept as fundamental to its very existence the recognition of the rights of minorities.

[D]rilling and arming, when carried on on a national scale, excite whole populations to frenzies which end in war.

Never underestimate a man who overestimates himself.

The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation .

In our democracy officers of the government are the servants, and never the masters of the people.

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

The future lies with those wise political leaders who realize that the great public is interested more in government than in politics.

The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.

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

We want a Supreme Court which will do justice under the Constitution - not over it. In our courts we want a government of laws and not of men.

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.

There's nothing to fear but a wide receiver who can run a 100-yard dash in under 10 seconds.

My own party can succeed at the polls only so long as it continues to be the party of militant liberalism.

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

[The United States is] founded on the principles of Christianity

What I seek is the highest possible batting average.

Tell that to the Marines!

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

Until Henry Ford saw the chance to get free publicity (making Sub-chasers) he thought submarines were something to eat.

Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that
men have died to win them.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

No political party has exclusive patent rights on prosperity.

The American people want their government to act, and not merely to talk, whenever and wherever there is a threat to world peace.

Great power involves great responsibility

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

We can afford all that we need; but we can not afford all [that] we want.

Sports is the very fiber of all we stand for. It keeps our spirits alive.

Failure is not an American habit.

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

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.

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

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.

To reach a port we must set sail

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

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

Some people can never understand that you have to wait, even for the best of things, until the right time comes.

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

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

Freedom of speech ... Freedom of worship ... Freedom from want ... Freedom from fear.

If in other lands the press and books and literature of all kinds are censored, we must redouble our efforts here to keep them free

Remember you are just an extra in everyone else's play.

The core of our defense is the faith we have in the institutions we defend.

All that is within me cries out to go back to my home on the Hudson River

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

As Americans, we go forward, in the service of our country, by the will of God.

December 7th, 1941
a date which will live in infamy

Inquisitiveness is the most useful talent.

There is no group in America that can withstand the force of an aroused public opinion.

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

That, in essence is Fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any controlling private power.

I have seen war ... I hate war.

The essence of our struggle is that men shall be free.

People die, but books never die.

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

People acting together as a group can accomplish things which no individual acting alone could ever hope to bring about.

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

Peace, like charity, begins at home.

"Appeasement" is the policy of feeding your friends to a crocodile, one at a time, in hopes that the crocodile will eat you last.

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

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

We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization.

Above all, try something

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

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