Franklin D. Roosevelt

Statesmanship United States 1882 – 1945 49 quotes

President who led the U.S. through the Depression and World War II with bold reforms.

Quotes by Franklin D. Roosevelt

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

First Inaugural Address 1933

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

Acceptance Speech at the Democratic National Convention 1932

A good many people are afraid of the word 'experiment' and I do not like it. I would rather use the word 'try out'.

Fireside Chat on the Banking Crisis 1933

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.

Second Inaugural Address 1937

No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country.

Statement on the National Industrial Recovery Act 1933

We must be the great arsenal of democracy.

Fireside Chat on National Security 1940

December 7th, 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.

Address to Congress Requesting a Declaration of War 1941

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 its government.

Annual Message to Congress 1938

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

Speech at Madison Square Garden 1936

The structure of world peace cannot be the work of one man, or one party, or one nation... It must be a peace which rests on the cooperative effort of the whole world.

Address to Congress on the Yalta Conference 1945

Freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

Four Freedoms Speech (State of the Union Address) 1941

The United States has no right to be called a democracy if it continues to deny the right to vote to its citizens because of their color.

State of the Union Address 1944

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.

First Inaugural Address 1933

True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. 'Necessitous men are not free men.'

State of the Union Address 1944

The American people are not in a mood to be trifled with.

Fireside Chat on the Banking Crisis 1933

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

Speech at the Democratic National Convention 1936

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

Speech at the Democratic National Convention 1936

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.

Speech at Oglethorpe University 1932

The best way to do good to the poor is not to make them easy in poverty, but to lead or drive them out of it.

Annual Message to Congress 1935

The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism.

Message to Congress on Curbing Monopolies 1938