Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
The driving force of a nation lies in its spiritual purpose, made effective by free, tolerant but unremitting national will.
No government can help the destinies of people who insist in putting sectional and class consciousness ahead of general weal.
Continued dependence on relief inducers a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber.
You cannot organize civilization around the core of militarism and at the same time expect reason to control human destinies.
The United States Constitution has proved itself the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written.
Democracy, the practice of self-government, is a covenant among free men to respect the rights and liberties of their fellows.
Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them." - Franklin D. Roosevelt
I hope that your committee will not permit doubt as to constitutionality, however reasonable, to block the suggested legislation
"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 barrier to success is not something which exists in the real world; it is composed purely and simply of doubts about ability.
Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them.
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.
The American people want their government to act, and not merely to talk, whenever and wherever there is a threat to world peace.
The motto of war is: "Let the strong survive; let the weak die." The motto of peace is: "Let the strong help the weak to survive."
That, in its essence, is Fascism — ownership of Government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.
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
So many figures are quoted to prove so many things. Sometimes it depends on what paper you read or what broadcast you listen in on.
On the European Front the most important development of the past year has been the crushing offensive of the Great Armies of Russia.
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.
No democracy can long survive which does not accept as fundamental to its very existence the recognition of the rights of minorities.
The future lies with those wise political leaders who realize that the great public is interested more in government than in politics.
The fate of America cannot depend on any one man. The greatness of America is grounded in principles and not on any single personality.
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.
Labor Day symbolizes our determination to achieve an economic freedom for the average man which will give his political freedom realty.
The only thing we have to fear is a giant wheelchair-crushing squid. Well... uh... actually, I guess that's the only thing I have to fear.
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.
The Democratic Party will live and continue to receive the support of the majority of Americans just so long as it remains a liberal party.
No business is above Government; and Government must be empowered to deal adequately with any business that tries to rise above Government.
In the formative days of the Republic, the directing influence the Bible exercised upon the fathers of the Nation is conspicuously evident.
The money-changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths.
Prosperous farmers mean more employment, more prosperity for the workers and the business men of every industrial area in the whole country.
All safe deposit boxes in banks or financial institutions have been sealed... and may only be opened in the presence of an agent of the I.R.S.
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.
I ask especially that no state shall, by law or otherwise, authorize the return of the saloon, either in its old form or in some modern guise.
The fundamental idea...is that the country belongs to the people, that it is in process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us.
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.
We must especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American Eagle in order to feather their own nests.
I hope that you have re-read the Constitution of the United States in these past few weeks. Like the Bible, it ought to be read again and again.
No group and no government can properly prescribe precisely what should constitute the body of knowledge with which true education is concerned.
For three long years I have been going up and down this country preaching that government . . . costs too much. I shall not stop that preaching.
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.
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.
Put two or three men in positions of conflicting authority. This will force them to work at loggerheads, allowing you to be the ultimate arbiter.
To stand upon ramparts and die for our principles is heroic, but to sally forth to battle and win for our principles is something more than heroic.
Research is one of the Nation's very greatest resources and the role of the Federal Government in supporting and stimulating it needs to reexamined.
Resort to force in the Great War (I) failed to bring tranquillity. Victory and defeat alike were sterile. That lesson the world should have learned.
In a democratic nation, power must be linked with responsibility, and obliged to defend and justify itself within the framework of the general good.
A program whose basic thesis is, not that the system of free enterprise for profit has failed in this generation, but that it has not yet been tried!
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.
Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.