Top 498 Quotes & Sayings by Franklin D. Roosevelt

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American president Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Last updated on November 22, 2024.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As a member of the Democratic Party, he won a record four presidential elections and became a central figure in world events during the first half of the 20th century. Roosevelt directed the federal government during most of the Great Depression, implementing his New Deal domestic agenda in response to the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. As a dominant leader of his party, he built the New Deal Coalition, which defined modern liberalism in the United States throughout the middle third of the 20th century. His third and fourth terms were dominated by World War II, which ended shortly after he died in office.

We are trying to construct a more inclusive society. We are going to make a country in which no one is left out.
To reach a port, we must sail - sail, not tie at anchor - sail, not drift.
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. — © Franklin D. Roosevelt
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.
Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are.
Take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly, and try another. But by all means, try something.
When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.
Yesterday, December seventh, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. We will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God.
The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.
Not only our future economic soundness but the very soundness of our democratic institutions depends on the determination of our government to give employment to idle men.
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 goverment.
If you treat people right they will treat you right... ninety percent of the time.
I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.
Self-interest is the enemy of all true affection. — © Franklin D. Roosevelt
Self-interest is the enemy of all true affection.
The United States Constitution has proved itself the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written.
The point in history at which we stand is full of promise and danger. The world will either move forward toward unity and widely shared prosperity - or it will move apart.
If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace.
War is a contagion.
If I went to work in a factory the first thing I'd do is join a union.
I am a Christian and a Democrat, that's all.
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.
A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward.
No government can help the destinies of people who insist in putting sectional and class consciousness ahead of general weal.
I'm not the smartest fellow in the world, but I can sure pick smart colleagues.
We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.
Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.
There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.
There are as many opinions as there are experts.
When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck to crush him.
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.
Don't forget what I discovered that over ninety percent of all national deficits from 1921 to 1939 were caused by payments for past, present, and future wars.
Confidence... thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live.
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.
It is fun to be in the same decade with you.
Be sincere; be brief; be seated.
Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.
It is the duty of the President to propose and it is the privilege of the Congress to dispose.
I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.
Physical strength can never permanently withstand the impact of spiritual force. — © Franklin D. Roosevelt
Physical strength can never permanently withstand the impact of spiritual force.
The virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea.
Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.
I do not look upon these United States as a finished product. We are still in the making.
The overwhelming majority of Americans are possessed of two great qualities a sense of humor and a sense of proportion.
This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and 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.
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.
The truth is found when men are free to pursue it. — © Franklin D. Roosevelt
The truth is found when men are free to pursue it.
Whoever seeks to set one religion against another seeks to destroy all religion.
More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginning of all wars - yes, an end to this brutal, inhuman and thoroughly impractical method of settling the differences between governments.
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.
The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.
Remember you are just an extra in everyone else's play.
There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.
Are you laboring under the impression that I read these memoranda of yours? I can't even lift them.
In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.
Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.
There is nothing I love as much as a good fight.
I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm.
One thing is sure. We have to do something. We have to do the best we know how at the moment... If it doesn't turn out right, we can modify it as we go along.
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