Quotes By Franklin D. Roosevelt

It takes a long time to bring the past up to the present.

Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

If I went to work in a factory the first thing I'd do is join a union.

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.

Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.

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

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.

It is the duty of the President to propose and it is the privilege of the Congress to dispose.

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.

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.

The virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea.

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.

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.

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 only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.

Selfishness is the only real atheism; aspiration, unselfishness, the only real religion.

The truth is found when men are free to pursue it.

It is fun to be in the same decade with you.

I am neither bitter nor cynical but I do wish there was less immaturity in political thinking.

There is nothing I love as much as a good fight.

There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.

I'm not the smartest fellow in the world, but I can sure pick smart colleagues.

In our seeking for economic and political progress, we all go up - or else we all go down.

No group and no government can properly prescribe precisely what should constitute the body of knowledge with which true education is concerned.

I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.

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

We continue to recognize the greater ability of some to earn more than others. But we do assert that the ambition of the individual to obtain for him a proper security is an ambition to be preferred to the appetite for great wealth and great power.

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.

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