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As Commander-in-chief, I Take Pleasure In Commending The Reading Of The Bible To All Who Serve In The Armed Forces Of The United States. Throughout The Centuries, Men Of Many Faiths And Diverse Origins Have Found In The Sacred Book Words Of Wisdom, Counsel, And Inspiration. It Is A Fountain Of Strength...an Aid In Attaining The Highest Aspiration Of The Human Soul.

-Franklin D. Roosevelt

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As Commander-in-chief, I Take

Franklin D. Roosevelt

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As Commander-in-chief, I Take Pleasure In Commending The Reading Of The Bible To All Who Serve In The Armed Forces Of The United States. Throughout The Centuries, Men Of Many Faiths And Diverse Origins Have Found In The Sacred Book Words Of Wisdom, Counsel, And Inspiration. It Is A Fountain Of Strength...an Aid In Attaining The Highest Aspiration Of The Human Soul.

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Religion, By Teaching Man His Relationship To God, Gives The Individual A Sense Of His Own Dignity And Teaches Him To Respect Himself By Respecting His Neighbors.

It Is Time To Extend Planning To A Wider Field, In This Instance Comprehending In One Great Project Many States Directly Concerned With The Basin Of One Of Our Greatest Rivers.

We May Not Be Able To Prepare The Future For Our Children, But We Can At Least Prepare Our Children For The Future.

I Believe That In Every Country The People Themselves Are More Peaceably And Liberally Inclined Than Their Governments.

We All Know That Books Burn, Yet We Have The Greater Knowledge That Books Cannot Be Killed By Fire. People Die, But Books Never Die. No Man And No Force Can Put Thought In A Concentration Camp Forever. No Man And No Force Can Take From The World The Books That Embody Man's Eternal Fight Against Tyranny Of Every Kind.

Many Causes Produce War. There Are Ancient Hatreds, Turbulent Frontiers, The "legacy Of Old Forgotten, Far-off Things, And Battles Long Ago." There Are New-born Fanaticisms. Convictions On The Part Of Certain Peoples That They Have Become The Unique Depositories Of Ultimate Truth And Right.

To Win This War, We Have Been Forced Into A Strategic Compromise Which Will Most Certainly Offend The Russians.

The Constant Free Flow Of Communication Amount Us-enabling The Free Interchange Of Ideas-forms The Very Bloodstream Of Our Nation. It Keeps The Mind And Body Of Our Democracy Eternally Vital, Eternally Young.

Preparation For Defense Is An Inalienable Prerogative Of A Sovereign State.

The World Order Which We Seek Is The Co-operation Of Free Countries, Working Together In A Friendly, Civilized Society.

We Do Not See Faith, Hope, And Charity As Unattainable Ideals, But We Use Them As Stout Supports Of A Nation Fighting The Fight For Freedom In A Modern Civilization.

Happiness Is Not Merely Money, Which Is Fun For Effort And Achievement

Is The United States Going To Decide, Are The People Of This Country Going To Decide That Their Federal Government Shall In The Future Have No Right Under Any Implied Power Or Any Court-approved Power To Enter Into A Solution Of A National Economic Problem, But That That National Economic Problem Must Be Decided Only By The States?... We Thought We Were Solving It, And Now It Has Been Thrown Right Straight In Our Faces. We Have Been Relegated To The Horse-and-buggy Definition Of Interstate Commerce.

They Have Given Their Sons To The Military Services. They Have Stoked The Furnaces And Hurried The Factory Wheels. They Have Made The Planes And Welded The Tanks. Riveted The Ships And Rolled The Shells.

I Think That Both Here And In England There Are Two Schools Of Thought--those Who Would Be Altruistic In Regard To The Germans, Hoping That By Loving Kindness To Make Them Christian Again--and Those Who Would Adopt A Much Tougher Attitude. Most Decidedly I Belong To The Latter School, For Though I Am Not Blood-thirsty, I Want The Germans To Know That This Time At Least They Have Definitely Lost The War.

Whoever Seeks To Set One Religion Against Another Seeks To Destroy All Religion.

Yesterday, December 7, 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.

Freedom Of Conscience, Of Education, Of Speech, Of Assembly Are Among The Very Fundamentals Of Democracy And All Of Them Would Be Nullified Should Freedom Of The Press Ever Be Successfully Challenged.

Freedom Of Speech

In The Final Analysis, The Progress Of Our Civilization Will Be Retarded If Any Large Body Of Citizens Falls Behind. Without The Help Of Thousands Of Others, Any One Of Us Would Die, Naked And Starved.

To Return To Higher Standards Of Living We Must Abandon The False Prophets And Seek New Leaders Of Our Own Choosing.

There Is Nothing So American As Our National Parks. The Scenery And The Wildlife Are Native. The Fundamental Idea Behind The Parks Is Native. It Is, In Brief, That The Country Belongs To The People, That It Is In Process Of Making For The Enrichment Of The Lives Of All Of Us. The Parks Stand As The Outward Symbal Of The Great Human Principle.

The Future Lies With Those Wise Political Leaders Who Realize That The Great Public Is Interested More In Government Than In Politics.

The Presidency Is Not Merely An Administrative Office...it Is Pre-eminently A Place Of Moral Leadership.

Moral Leadership

As A Nation, We May Take Pride In The Fact That We Are Softhearted; But We Cannot Afford To Be Soft-headed.

The Ablest Man I Ever Met Is The Man You Think You Are.

We Have The Men--the Skill--the Wealth--and Above All, The Will.... We Must Be The Great Arsenal Of Democracy.

A Small Group Had Concentrated Into Their Own Hands An Almost Complete Control Over Other People's Property, Other People's Money, Other People's Labor - Other People's Lives. For Too Many Of Us Life Was No Longer Free; Liberty No Longer Real; Men Could No Longer Follow The Pursuit Of Happiness.

Pursuit Of Happiness

Once You've Spent Two Years Trying To Wiggle One Toe, Everything Is In Proportion.

I Fearthat Both Dictators [hitler And Mussolini] Think Their Present Methods Are Succeeding Because Of The Gains They Have Made In Albania, Hungary And Yugoslavia.

Remember, Remember Always, That All Of Us, And You And I Especially, Are Descended From Immigrants And Revolutionists.

We Must Be The Great Arsenal Of Democracy.

New Orleans Makes It Possible To Go To Europe Without Ever Leaving The United States.

Private Enterprise Is Ceasing To Be Free Enterprise. Private Enterprise, Indeed, Became Too Private. It Became Privileged Enterprise, Not Free Enterprise.

Free Enterprise

Private Enterprise

The Essential Qualities Of A True Pan Americanism Must Be The Same As Those Which Constitute A Good Neighbor; Namely, Mutual Understanding, And Through Such Understanding, A Sympathetic Appeciation Of The Other's Point Of View. It Is Only In This Manner That We Can Hope To Build Up A System Of Which Confidence, Friendship, And Good Will Are The Cornerstones.

We Stand Committed To The Proposition That Freedom Is No Half-and-half Affair. If The Average Citizen Is Guaranteed Equal Opportunity In The Polling Place, He Must Have Equal Opportunity In The Market Place.

How Many People In The United States Do You Think Will Be Willing To Go To War To Free Estonia, Latvia, And Lithuania?

When Peace Has Been Broken Anywhere, The Peace Of All Countries Is In Danger.

A Conservative Is A Man With Two Perfectly Good Legs Who, However, Has Never Learned How To Walk Forward.

On The European Front The Most Important Development Of The Past Year Has Been The Crushing Offensive Of The Great Armies Of Russia.

No Government Can Help The Destinies Of People Who Insist In Putting Sectional And Class Consciousness Ahead Of General Weal.

We Have Always Known That Heedless Self Interest Was Bad Morals, We Now Know That It Is Bad Economics.

Industrial Combination Is Not Wrong In Itself. The Danger Lies In Taking Government Into Partnership.

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.

It Is A Terrible Thing To Look Over Your Shoulder When You Are Trying To Lead - And Find No One There.

We Defend And We Build A Way Of Life, Not For America Alone, But For All Mankind.

If You Hold Your Fire Until You See The Whites Of His Eyes, You Will Never Know What Hit You.

A Radical Is A Man With Both Feet Firmly Planted-in The Air.

If We Do Not Halt This Steady Process Of Building Commissions And Regulatory Bodies And The Special Legislation Like Huge Inverted Pyramids Over Every One Of The Simple Constitutional Provisions, We Shall Soon Be Spending Many Billions Of Dollars More.

I Have No Expectation Of Making A Hit Every Time I Come To Bat.

Concentration Of Wealth And Power Has Been Built Upon Other People's Money, Other People's Business, Other People's Labor. Under This Concentration, Independent Business Has Been A Menace To American Society.

Concentration Of Wealth

Never Underestimate A Man Who Overestimates Himself.

It Is Time To Provide A Smashing Answer For Those Cynical Men Who Say That A Democracy Cannot Be Honest, Cannot Be Efficient.... We Have In The Darkest Moments Of Our National Trials Retained Our Faith In Our Own Ability To Master Our Own Destiny.

'peace On Earth, Good Will Toward Men' - Democracy Must Cling To That Message. For It Is My Deep Conviction That Democracy Cannot Live Without That True Religion Which Gives A Nation A Sense Of Justice And Moral Purpose.

Hostilities Exist. There Is No Blinking At The Fact That Our People, Our Territory And Our Interests Are In Grave Danger. With Confidence In Our Armed Forces, With The Unbounding Determination Of Our People, We Will Gain The Inevitable Triumph, So Help Us God.

The Handling Of Our Forests As A Continuous, Renewable Resource Means Permanent Employment And Stability To Our Country Life. The Forests Are Also Needed For Mitigating Extreme Climatic Fluctuations, Holding The Soil On The Slopes, Retaining The Moisture In The Ground, And Controlling The Equable Flow Of Water In Our Streams.

Nationwide Thinking, Nationwide Planning And Nationwide Action Are The Three Great Essentials To Prevent Nationwide Crises For Future Generations To Struggle Through.

We Are Fighting To Save A Great And Precious Form Of Government For Ourselves And For The World.

In Vain They Seek To Hide Behind The Flag And The Constitution. In Their Blindness They Forget What The Flag And The Constitution Stand For. Now, As Always, They Stand For Democracy, Not Tyranny; For Freedom, Not Subjection; And Against A Dictatorship By Mob Rule And The Over-privileged Alike.

Confidence... Thrives On Honesty, On Honor, On The Sacredness Of Obligations, On Faithful Protection And On Unselfish Performance. Without Them It Cannot Live.

Inside The Polling Booth Every American Man And Woman Stands As The Equal Of Every Other American Man And Woman. There They Have No Superiors. There They Have No Masters Save Their Own Minds And Consciences.

But While They Prate Of Economic Laws, Men And Women Are Starving. We Must Lay Hold Of The Fact That Economic Laws Are Not Made By Nature. They Are Made By Human Beings.

...we Now Realize As We Have Never Before Our Interdependence On Each Other; That We Cannot Merely Take, But We Must Be Willing To Sacrifice For The Good Of A Common Discipline, Because Without Such Discipline, No Progress Is Made, No Leadership Becomes Effective.

The Gains In Education Are Never Really Lost. Books May Be Burned And Cities Sacked, But Truth, Like The Yearning For Freedom, Lives In The Hearts Of Humble Men.

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.

If I Went To Work In A Factory The First Thing I'd Do Is Join A Union.

Organized Labor

I Am Accustomed To Hearing Malicious Falsehoods About Myself . . . But I Think I Have A Right To Resent, To Object To Libelous Statements About My Dog.

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.

These Republican Leaders Have Not Been Content With Attacks On Me, On My Wife, Or On My Sons. No, Not Content With That, They Now Include My Little Dog, Fala. Well, Of Course, I Don't Resent Attacks... But Fala Does Resent Them.

All Work Undertaken Should Be Useful - Not Just For A Day, Or A Year, But Useful In The Sense That It Affords Permanent Improvement In Living Conditions Or That It Creates Future New Wealth For The Nation.

Your Boys Are Not Going To Be Sent Into Any Foreign Wars.

You'll Have To Learn That Public Life Takes A Lot Of Sweat; But It Doesn't Need To Worry You. You Won't Always Be Right, But You Mustn't Suffer From Being Wrong. That's What Kills People Like Us.

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!

This Generation

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.

Economic Inequality

Employers And Employees Alike Have Learned That In Union There Is Strength.

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.

Continued Dependence On Relief Inducers A Spiritual And Moral Disintegration Fundamentally Destructive To The National Fiber.

Dealing With The State Department Is Like Watching An Elephant Become Pregnant.

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.

The American People In Their Righteous Might Will Win Through To Absolute Victory.

We May Make Mistakes-but They Must Never Be Mistakes Which Result From Faintness Of Heart Or Abandonment Of Moral Principle.

Democracy Is Not A Static Thing. It Is An Everlasting March.

I Am Particularly Interested In The Indications That The People Seem To Understand And Approve The Necessity Of Pursuing The Course That Will Prevent A Further Effort On The Part Of The German Peoples To Continue The Struggle For World Domination, Even Though They Are Thoroughly Beaten In This War.

All Government Employees Should Realize That The Process Of Collective Bargaining, As Usually Understood, Cannot Be Transplanted Into The Public Service.

What America Needs Now Is A Drink.

I Regard Reduction In Federal Spending As One Of The Most Important Issues In This Campaign. In My Opinion It Is The Most Direct And Effective Contribution That Government Can Make To Business.

We Are Trying To Construct A More Inclusive Society. We Are Going To Make A Country In Which No One Is Left Out.

Perfectionism, No Less Than Isolationism Or Imperialism Or Power Politics, May Obstruct The Paths To International Peace. Let Us Not Forget That The Retreat To Isolationism A Quarter Of A Century Ago Was Started Not By A Direct Attack Against International Cooperation But Against The Alleged Imperfections Of The Peace.

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.

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 Loneliest Feeling In The World Is When You Think You Are Leading The Parade And Turn To Find That No One Is Following You. No President Who Badly Misguesses Public Opinion Will Last Very Long.

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 Can Afford All That We Need; But We Can Not Afford All [that] We Want.

Great Power Involves Great Responsibility

Power And Responsibility

Goods Produced Under Conditions Which Do Not Meet A Rudimentary Standard To Decency Should Be Regarded As Contraband And Not Allowed To Pollute The Channels Of International Commerce.

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.

In Politics, Nothing Happens By Accident. If It Happens, You Can Bet It Was Planned That Way.

Books Can Not Be Killed By Fire. People Die, But Books Never Die. No Man And No Force Can Abolish Memory... In This War, We Know, Books Are Weapons. And It Is A Part Of Your Dedication Always To Make Them Weapons For Man's Freedom.

Democracy Cannot Succeed Unless Those Who Express Their Choice Are Prepared To Choose Wisely. The Real Safeguard Of Democracy, Therefore, Is Education.

I Do Not Believe In Communism Any More Than You Do But There Is Nothing Wrong With The Communists In This Country. Several Of The Best Friends I Have Got Are Communists.

The First Twelve Years Are The Hardest.

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.

We Are Going To Tax And Tax, Spend And Spend, Elect And Elect.

I See An America Whose Rivers And Valleys And Lakes Hills And Streams And Plains The Mountains Over Our Land And Nature's Wealth Deep Under The Earth Are Protected As The Rightful Heritage Of All The People.

To Reach A Port We Must Set Sail

General De Gaulle Was A Thoroughly Bad Boy. The Day He Arrived, He Thought He Was Joan Of Arc And The Following Day He Insisted That He Was Georges Clemenceau.

America Has Been The New World In All Tongues, To All Peoples, Not Because This Continent Was A New-found Land, But Because All Those Who Came Here Believed They Could Create Upon This Continent A New Life -- A Life That Should Be New In Freedom.

The Peoples Of Many Countries Are Being Taxed To The Point Of Poverty And Starvation In Order To Enable Governments To Engage In A Mad Race In Armament Which, If Permitted To Continue, May Well Result In War. This Grave Menace To The Peace Of The World Is Due In No Small Measure To The Uncontrolled Activities Of The Manufacturers And Merchants Of Engines Of Destruction, And It It Must Be Met By The Concerted Actions Of The Peoples Of All Nations.

A Radical Is A Man With Both Feet Firmly Planted-in The Air. A Conservative Is A Man With Two Perfectly Good Legs, Who, However, Has Never Learned To Walk Forward. A Reactionary Is A Somnambulist Walking Backwards. A Liberal Is A Man Who Uses His Legs And Hands At The Behest Of His Head.

All Of Us In All The Americas Will Be Living At The Point Of A Gun.

If I Were Starting Life Over Again, I Am Inclined To Think That I Would Go Into The Advertising Business In Preference To Almost Any Other. The General Raising Of The Standards Of Modern Civilization Among All Groups Of People During The Past Half Ce

The Moment A Mere Numerical Superiority By Either States Or Voters In This Country Proceeds To Ignore The Needs And Desires Of The Minority, And For Their Own Selfish Purpose Or Advancement, Hamper Or Oppress That Minority, Or Debar Them In Any Way From Equal Privileges And Equal Rights-that Moment Will Mark The Failure Of Our Constitutional System.

Frankly, I Do Not Know How To Effect A Permanency In American Foreign Policy.

Of Course We Believe These Things. We Believe In Social Security. We Believe In Work For The Unemployed. We Believe In Saving Homes. Cross Our Hearts And Hope To Die! We Believe In All These Things. But We Do Not Like The Way That The Present Administration Is Doing Them. Just Turn Them Over To Us. We Will Do All Of Them, We Will Do More Of Them, We Will Do Them Better And, Most Important Of All, The Doing Of Them Will Not Cost Anybody Anything!

If The Fires Of Freedom And Civil Liberties Burn Low In Other Lands They Must Be Made Brighter In Our Own. 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. If In Other Lands The Eternal Truths Of The Past Are Threatened By Intolerance We Must Provide A Safe Place For Their Perpetuation.

Of Course We Will Continue To Work For Cheaper Electricity In The Homes And On The Farms Of America; For Better And Cheaper Transportation; For Low Interest Rates; For Sounder Home Financing; For Better Banking; For The Regulation Of Security Issues; For Reciprocal Trade Among Nations And For The Wiping Out Of Slums. And My Friends, For All Of These We Have Only Begun To Fight.

Always Will We Remember The Character Of The Onslaught Against Us. No Matter How Long It May Take Us To Overcome This Premeditated Invasion, The American People In Their Righteous Might Will Win Through To Absolute Victory.... We Will Not Only Defend Ourselves To The Uttermost, But Will Make Very Certain That This Form Of Treachery Shall Never Endanger Us Again.

I'm Not The Smartest Fellow In The World, But I Can Sure Pick Smart Colleagues.

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.

Failure Is Not An American Habit.

It Is To The Real Advantage Of Every Producer, Every Manufacturer And Every Merchant To Cooperate In The Improvement Of Working Conditions, Because The Best Customer Of American Industry Is The Well-paid Worker.

Real Estate Cannot Be Lost Or Stolen, Nor Can It Be Carried Away. Purchased With Common Sense, Paid For In Full, And Managed With Reasonable Care, It Is About The Safest Investment In The World.

Eternal Truths Will Be Neither True Nor Eternal Unless They Have Fresh Meaning For Every New Social Situation.

Meaning Of Life

A Reactionary Is A Somnambulist Walking Backwards.

Walking Backwards

We Cannot Always Build A Future For Our Youth, But We Can Always Build Our Youth For The Future.

Inequality May Linger In The World Of Material Things, But Great Music, Great Literature, Great Art And The Wonders Of Science Are, And Should Be, Open To All.

The Democratic Aspiration Is No Mere Recent Phase In Human History. It Is Human History.

We Must Open Our Eyes And See That Modern Civilization Has Become So Complex And The Lives Of Civilized Men So Interwoven With Thelives Of Other Men In Other Countries As To Make It Impossible To Be In This World And Out Of It.

No Greater Blessing Could Come To Our Land Today Than A Revival Of The Spirit Of Religion. I Doubt If There Is Any Problem In The World Today -- Social, Political, Or Economic -- That Would Not Find Happy Solution If Approached In The Spirit Of The Sermon On The Mount.

The True Conservative Seeks To Protect The System Of Private Property And Free Enterprise By Correcting Such Injustices And Inequalities As Arise From It. The Most Serious Threat To Our Institutions Comes From Those Who Refuse To Face The Need For Change. Liberalism Becomes The Protection For The Far-sighted Conservative.

For Every Advance That The Japanese Have Made Since They Started Their Frenzied Career Of Conquest, They Have Had To Pay A Very Heavy Toll In Warships, In Transports, In Planes, And In Men. They Are Feeling The Effects Of Those Losses.

The People Of America Are In Agreement In Defending Their Liberties At Any Cost, And The First Line Of That Defense Lies In The Protection Of Economic Security.

The Core Of Our Defense Is The Faith We Have In The Institutions We Defend.

Tell That To The Marines!

We Must Remember That Any Oppression, Any Injustice, Any Hatred, Is A Wedge Designed To Attack Our Civilization.

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.

The Best Customer Of American Industry Is The Well Paid Worker.

Working Conditions

A War Of Ideas Can No More Be Won Without Books Than A Naval War Can Be Won Without Ships. Books, Like Ships, Have The Toughest Armor, The Longest Cruising Range, And Mount The Most Powerful Guns.

Inquisitiveness Is The Most Useful Talent.

No Business Which Depends For Existence On Paying Less Than Living Wages To Its Workers Has Any Right To Continue In This Country... By Living Wages I Mean More Than A Bare Subsistence Level - I Mean The Wages Of Decent Living.

On Both Sides Of The Line, We Are So Accustomed To An Undefended Boundary Three Thousand Miles Long That We Are Inclined Perhaps To Minimize Its Vast Importance, Not Only To Our Own Continuing Relations But Also To The Example Which It Sets To The Other Nations Of The World.

Those Newspapers Of The Nation Which Most Loudly Cried Dictatorship Against Me Would Have Been The First To Justify The Beginnings Of Dictatorship By Somebody Else.

The First Theory Is That If We Make The Rich Richer, Somehow They Will Let A Part Of Their Prosperity Trickle Down To The Rest Of Us. The Second Theory Was The Theory That If We Make The Average Of Mankind Comfortable And Secure, Their Prosperity Will Rise Upward Through The Ranks.

Taxation According To Income Is The Most Effective Instrument Yet Devised To Obtain Just Contribution From Those Best Able To Bear It And To Avoid Placing Onerous Burdens Upon The Mass Of Our People.

[d]rilling And Arming, When Carried On On A National Scale, Excite Whole Populations To Frenzies Which End In War.

Do The Best You Can Do And Wait The Results In Peace.

We Had To Struggle With The Old Enemies Of Peace - Business And Financial Monopoly, Speculation, Reckless Banking, Class Antagonism, Sectionalism, War Profiteering. They Had Begun To Consider The Government Of The United States As A Mere Appendage To Their Own Affairs. We Know Now That Government By Organized Money Is Just As Dangerous As Government By Organized Mob. Never Before In All Our History Have These Forces Been So United Against One Candidate As They Stand Today. They Are Unanimous In Their Hate For Me - And I Welcome Their Hatred.

No Group And No Government Can Properly Prescribe Precisely What Should Constitute The Body Of Knowledge With Which True Education Is Concerned.

The Success Of Our Whole National Program Depends, Of Course, On The Cooperation Of The Public--on Its Intelligent Support And Its Use Of A Reliable System.

I Believe That We Are Going To Get Along Very Well With Him [josef Stalin] And The Russian People - Very Well Indeed.

A Wise Government Seeks To Provide The Opportunity Through Which The Best Of Individual Achievement Can Be Obtained, While At The Same Time It Seeks To Remove Such Obstruction, Such Unfairness As Springs From Selfish Human Motives.

Calm Seas Never Made A Good Sailor

And Yet Our Distress Comes From No Failure Of Substance. We Are Stricken By No Plague Of Locusts. Compared With The Perils Which Our Forefathers Conquered, Because They Believed And Were Not Afraid, We Have Still Much To Be Thankful For. Nature Still Offers Her Bounty And Human Efforts Have Multiplied It. Plenty Is At Our Doorstep, But A Generous Use Of It Languishes In The Very Sight Of The Supply.

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.

I Love It--i Just Love It.

We Have Always Known That Heedless Self-interest Was Bad Morals; We Know Now That It Is Bad Economics. Out Of The Collapse Of A Prosperity Whose Builders Boasted Their Practicality Has Come The Conviction That In The Long Run Economic Morality Pays.

Our Constitution Is So Simple And Practical That It Is Possible Always To Meet Extraordinary Needs By Changes In Emphasis And Arrangement Without Loss Of Essential Form.

A Nation, Like A Person, Has A Mind - A Mind That Must Be Kept Informed And Alert, That Must Know Itself, That Understands The Hopes And Needs Of Its Neighbors - All The Other Nations That Live Within The Narrowing Circle Of The World

It Drives On With A Courage Which Is Stronger Than The Storm. It Drives On With A Mercy Which Does Not Quail In The Presence Of Death. It Drives On As Proof, A Symbol, A Testimony That Man Is Created In The Image Of God And That Valour And Virtue Have Not Perished In The British Race.

Since I Am Used To Speaking In Public, I Know That It Is Useless.

The Lessons Of Religious Toleration - A Toleration Which Recognizes Complete Liberty Of Human Thought, Liberty Of Conscience - Is One Which, By Precept And Example, Must Be Inculcated In The Hearts And Minds Of All Americans If The Institutions Of Our Democracy Are To Be Maintained And Perpetuated. We Must Recognize The Fundamental Rights Of Man. There Can Be No True National Life In Our Democracy Unless We Give Unqualified Recognition To Freedom Of Religious Worship And Freedom Of Education.

Are We Going To Take The Hands Of The Federal Government Completely Off Any Effort To Adjust The Growing Of National Crops, And Go Right Straight Back To The Old Principle That Every Farmer Is A Lord Of His Own Farm And Can Do Anything He Wants, Raise Anything, Any Old Time, In Any Quantity, And Sell Any Time He Wants?

I Am ... Willing To Make It Clear That American Foreign Policy Must Uphold The Sanctity Of International Treaties. That Is The Cornerstone On Which All Relations Between Nations Must Rest.

Sometimes The Best Way To Keep Peace In The Family Is To Keep The Members Of The Family Apart For Awhile.

In These Days Of Difficulty, We Americans Everywhere Must And Shall Choose The Path Of Social Justice…, The Path Of Faith, The Path Of Hope, And The Path Of Love Toward Our Fellow Man.

Okay, You've Convinced Me. Now Go Out There And Bring Pressure On Me.

That Is The Spiral Galaxy In Andromeda. It Is As Large As Our Milky Way. It Is One Of A Hundred Million Galaxies. It Consists Of One Hundred Billion Suns. Now I Think We Are Small Enough.

The Virtues Are Lost In Self-interest As Rivers Are Lost In The Sea.

Lord, Reform Thy World, Beginning With Me.

In The Formative Days Of The Republic, The Directing Influence The Bible Exercised Upon The Fathers Of The Nation Is Conspicuously Evident.

We Are Not Isolationists Except In So Far As We Seek To Isolate Ourselves Completely From War. Yet We Must Remember That So Long As War Exists On Earth There Will Be Some Danger That Even The Nation Which Most Ardently Desires Peace May Be Drawn Into War.

Slowly, And In Spite Of Anything We Americans Do Or Do Not Do, It Looks A Little As If You And Some Other Good People Are Going To Have To Answer The Old Question Of Whether You Want To Keep Your Country Unshackled By Taking Even More Definite Steps To Do So

I Consider It A Public Duty To Answer Falsifications With Facts. I Will Not Pretend That I Find This An Unpleasant Duty. I Am An Old Campaigner, And I Love A Good Fight.

It Will Never Be Possible For Any Length Of Time For Any Group Of The American People, Either By Reason Of Wealth Or Learning Or Inheritance Or Economic Power, To Retain Any Mandate, Any Permanent Authority To Arrogate To Itself The Political Control Of American Public Life.

The Traditional Jeffersonian Principle Of Religious Freedom Was So Broadly Democratic That It Included The Right To Have No Religion At All - It Gave To The Individual The Right To Worship Any God He Chose Or No God.

The Creed Of Our Democracy Is That Liberty Is Acquired And Kept By Men And Women Who Are Strong And Self-reliant, And Possessed Of Such Wisdom As God Gives Mankind - Men And Women Who Are Just, And Understanding, And Generous To Others - Men And Women Who Are Capable Of Disciplining Themselves. For They Are The Rulers And They Must Rule Themselves.

No Man Can Tame A Tiger Into A Kitten By Stroking It.

Pearl Harbor Day

The Social Security Act Offers To All Our Citizens A Workable And Working Method Of Meeting Urgent Present Needs And Of Forestalling Future Need. It Utilizes The Familiar Machinery Of Our Federal-state Government To Promote The Common Welfare And The Economic Stability Of The Nation.

Necessitous Men Are Not Free Men.

It Has Its Distinct And Insurmountable Limitations When Applied To Public Personnel Management.

Collective Bargaining

Where Freedom Of Religion Has Been Attacked, The Attack Has Come From Sources Opposed To Democracy. Where Democracy Has Been Overthrown, The Spirit Of Free Worship Has Disappeared. And Where Religion And Democracy Have Vanished, Good Faith And Reason In International Affairs Have Given Way To Strident Ambition And Brute Force.

Democracies Have

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.

Finally, In Our Progress Toward A Resumption Of Work We Require Two Safeguards Against A Return Of The Evils Of The Old Order: There Must Be A Strict Supervision Of All Banking And Credits And Investments; There Must Be An End To Speculation With Other People's Money, And There Must Be Provision For An Adequate But Sound Currency.

Labor Day Symbolizes Our Determination To Achieve An Economic Freedom For The Average Man Which Will Give His Political Freedom Realty.

More Than An End To War, We Want An End To The Beginnings Of All Wars. Yes, An End To This Brutal, Inhuman And Thoroughly Impractical Method Of Settling The Differences Between Governments. The Once Powerful Malignant Nazi State Is Crumbling; The Japanese Warlords Are Receiving In Their Homelands The Retribution For Which They Asked When They Attacked Pearl Harbor. But The Mere Conquest Of Our Enemies Is Not Enough; We Must Go On To Do All In Our Power To Conquer The Doubts And The Fears, The Ignorance And The Greed, Which Made This Horror Possible.

Our Policy Is To Give All Possible Material Aid To The Nations That Still Resist Aggression Across The Atlantic And Pacific Oceans. And We Make It Abundantly Clear That We Intend To Commit None Of The Fatal Errors Of Appeasement. We Have The Thought That In This Nation Of Many States We Have Found The Way In Which Men Of Many Racial Origins May Live Together In Peace. If The Human Race As A Whole Is To Survive, The World Must Find A Way By Which Men And Nations May Live Together In Peace. We Cannot Accept The Doctrine That War Must Be Forever A Part Of Man's Destiny.

It Seems To Me That The Dedication Of A Library Is An Act Of Faith. To Bring Together The Resources Of The Past And To House Them In Buildings Where They Will Be Preserved For The Use Of Men And Women In The Future, A Nation Must Believe In Three Things. It Must Believe In The Past. It Must Believe In The Future. It Must, Above All, Believe In The Capacity Of Its Own People So To Learn From The Past That They Can Gain In Judgment In Creating Their Own Future.

December 7, 1941. A Date Which Will Live In Infamy.

The Presidency Is Not Merely An Administrative Office. Thats The Least Of It. It Is More Than An Engineering Job, Efficient Or Inefficient. It Is Pre-eminently A Place Of Moral Leadership. All Our Great Presidents Were Leaders Of Thought At Times When Certain Historic Ideas In The Life Of The Nation Had To Be Clarified.

Moral Leadership

Peace, Like War, Can Succeed Only Where There Is A Will To Enforce It, And Where There Is Available Power To Enforce It.

Physical Strength Can Never Permanently Withstand The Impact Of Spiritual Force.

It Is An Unfortunate Human Failing That A Full Pocketbook Often Groans More Loudly Than An Empty Stomach.

We Have Nothing To Fear But Missing Our Massage Appointment Time

There Is Nothing I Love As Much As A Good Fight.

Those Of You Who Have Been There [haiti] Know It Is One Of The Most Beautiful Countries In The World. It Has Everything. It Has Everything Above The Ground, And Everything Under The Ground.... It Is An Amazing Place. I Strongly Recommend That Whenever You Get A Chance, If You Haven't Been There, That You Go To Haiti. I Think It Was A Certain Queen Of England Who Said That After Her Death "calais" Would Be Found Written On Her Heart. When I Die, I Think That "haiti" Is Going To Be Written On My Heart.

I Am Much Interested And Deeply Impressed By What He Has Accomplished And By His Evidenced Honest Purpose Of Restoring Italy And Seeking To Prevent General European Trouble.

Governments Can Err, Presidents Do Make Mistakes, But The Immortal Dante Tells Us That Divine Justice Weighs The Sins Of The Cold-blooded And The Sins Of The Warm-hearted In Different Scales. Better The Occasional Faults Of A Government That Lives In A Spirit Of Charity Than The Constant Omission Of A Government Frozen In The Ice Of Its Own Indifference.

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.

An Election Cannot Give A Country A Firm Sense Of Direction If It Has Two Or More National Parties Which Merely Have Different Names But Are As Alike In Their Principles And Aims As Peas In The Same Pod.

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.

Freedom Of Speech

The Liberal Party Is A Party Which Believes That, As New Conditions An Problems Arise Beyond The Power Of Men And Women To Meet As Individuals, It Becomes The Duty Of The Government Itself To Find New Remedies With Which To Meet Them.

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