A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
A radical is a man with both feet planted firmly in the air.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Be sincere, be brief, be seated.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
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.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel in order to be tough.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
I doubt if there is in the world a single problem, whether social, political, or economic, which would not find ready solution if men and nations would rule their lives according to the plain teaching of the Sermon on the Mount.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
If you treat people right they will treat you right- ninety percent of the time.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.
--Franklin Delano 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.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
The fate of America cannot depend on any one man. The greatness of America is grounded in principles and not on any single personality.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
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.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the larger centers has owned the Government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson...
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
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.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
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.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
The truth is found when men are free to pursue it.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
The ultimate failures of dictatorship cost humanity far more than any temporary failures of democracy.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
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.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
They (who) seek to establish systems of government based on the regimentation of all human beings by a handful of individual rulers... call this a new order. It is not new and it is not order.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
We have, however, a clear mandate from the people, that Americans must forswear that conception of the acquisition of wealth which, through excessive profits, creates undue private power over private affairs and, to our misfortune, over public affairs as well.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
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.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
We must scrupulously guard the civil rights and civil liberties of all our citizens, whatever their background. We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck to crush him.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Whoever seeks to set one race against another seeks to enslave all races.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Found 33 occurence(s) in 52,059 quotation(s).