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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.

-Franklin D. Roosevelt

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No Greater Blessing Could

Franklin D. Roosevelt

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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.

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More From Franklin D. Roosevelt

A Good Leader Can't Get Too Far Ahead Of His Followers.

Lives Of Nations Are Determined Not By The Count Of Years, But By The Lifetime Of The Human Spirit. The Life Of A Man Is Three-score Years And Ten: A Little More, A Little Less. The Life Of A Nation Is The Fullness Of The Measure Of Its Will To Live.

These Economic Royalists Complain That We Seek To Overthrow The Institutions Of America. What They Really Complain Of Is That We Seek To Take Away Their Power. Our Allegiance To American Institutions Requires The Overthrow Of This Kind Of Power. 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.

We Can See Now That We Americans Were Caught Unprepared, Because We Were Ordinary Human Beings, Following The Best Advice We Had At The Time. No One Would Have Guessed In 1941 That We Would Be Attacked In Such An Unsportsmanlike Manner As We Were. No One Could Have Visualized Pearl Harbor, Either Out There Or In Washington. But If We Had Known Then What We Know Now, We Would Have Expected An Attack In 1941.

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.

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.

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

The Winds That Blow Through The Wide Sky In These Mounts, The Winds That Sweep From Canada To Mexico, From The Pacific To The Atlantic - Have Always Blown On Free Men.

I Love It--i Just Love It.

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.

Let Us Move Forward With Strong And Active Faith.

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.

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

While Things On The Surface Seem More Quiet Than At Any Time Since Last Summer, I Do Not Like The Maintenance Of What Amounts To Almost Full Mobilization In Aggressor Countries. Surely They Cannot Afford It And If They Had Any Definite Policy Of Trying To Work Out Economic Salvation (except By Arms) They Would Be Showing Some Signs Of Cutting Military Expenditures.

The Future Lies With Those Wise Political Leaders Who Realize That The Great Public Is Interested More In Government Than In Politics. The Growing Independence Of Voters, After All, Has Been Proven By The Votes In Every Presidential Election Since My Childhood And The Tendency, Frankly, Is On The Increase.

When You See A Rattlesnake Poised To Strike, You Do Not Wait Until He Has Struck To Crush Him.

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.

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

The Duty Of The State Toward The Citizen Is The Duty Of The Servant To Its Master.... One Of The Duties Of The State Is That Of Caring For Those Of Its Citizens Who Find Themselves The Victims Of Such Adverse Circumstances As Makes Them Unable To Obtain Even The Necessities For Mere Existence Without The Aid Of Others.... To These Unfortunate Citizens Aid Must Be Extended By Government--not As A Matter Of Charity But As A Matter Of Social Duty.

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.

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.

Democracy Can Thrive Only When It Enlists The Devotion Of Those Whom Lincoln Called The Common People. Democracy Can Hold That Devotion Only When It Adequately Respects Their Dignity By So Ordering Society As To Assure To The Masses Of Men And Women Reasonable Security And Hope For Themselves And For Their Children.

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.

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

Happiness Lies Not In The Mere Possession Of Money; It Lies In The Joy Of Achievement, In The Thrill Of Creative Effort.

We Have Faith That Future Generations Will Know Here, In The Middle Of The Twentieth Century, There Came A Time When Men Of Good Will Found A Way To Unite, And Produce, And Fight To Destroy The Forces Of Ignorance, And Intolerance, And Slavery, And War.

I Tell The American People Solemnly That The United States Will Never Survive As A Happy And Fertile Oasis Of Liberty Surrounded By A Cruel Desert Of Dictatorship.

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

Taxes Are Paid In The Sweat Of Every Man Who Labors.

We, Too, Born To Freedom, And Believing In Freedom, Are Willing To Fight To Maintain Freedom. We, And All Others Who Believe As Deeply As We Do, Would Rather Die On Our Feet Than Live On Our Knees.

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.

When A Country Is At War We Want Congressmen, Regardless Of Party, To Back Up The Government Of The United States.

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.

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

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

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

I Suggest A Nationwide Reading Of The Holy Scriptures During The Period From Thanksgiving Day To Christmas.

Thanksgiving Day

This Great Nation Will Endure As It Has Endured, Will Revive And Will Prosper.

That, In Its Essence, Is Fascism — Ownership Of Government By An Individual, By A Group, Or By Any Other Controlling Private Power.

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

Liberty Requires Opportunity To Make A Living--a Living Decent According To The Standard Of The Time, A Living Which Gives A Man Not Only Enough To Live By, But Something To Live For.

If The Nation Is Living Within Its Income, Its Credit Is Good. If, In Some Crises, It Lives Beyond Its Income For A Year Or Two, It Can Usually Borrow Temporarily At Reasonable Rates. But If, Like A Spendthrift, It Throws Discretion To The Winds, And Is Willing To Make No Sacrifice At All In Spending; If It Extends Its Taxing To The Limit Of The Peoples Power To Pay And Continues To Pile Up Deficits, Then It Is On The Road To Bankruptcy.

Books Cannot Be Killed By Fire.

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

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

We Must Be The Great Arsenal Of Democracy. For Us This Is An Emergency As Serious As War Itself. We Must Apply Ourselves To Our Task With The Same Resolution, The Same Sense Of Urgency, The Same Spirit Of Patriotism And Sacrifice As We Would Show Were We At War.

My Fellow Americans: Last Night When I Spoke With You About The Fall Of Rome, I Knew At That Moment That The Troops Of The United States And Our Allies Were Crossing The Channel In Another And Greater Operation. It Has Come To Pass With Success Thus Far. And So, In This Poignant Hour, I Ask You To Join Me In Prayer: Almighty God: Our Sons, Pride Of Our Nation, This Day Have Set Upon A Mighty Endeavor, A Struggle To Preserve Our Republic, Our Religion, And Our Civilization. . .

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

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.

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

I Want To Preach A New Doctrine. A Complete Separation Of Business And Government.

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

There Are Many Ways Of Going Forward, But Only One Way Of Standing Still.

It Took Six Weeks Of Debate In The Senate To Get The Arms Embargo Law Repealed--and We Face Other Delays During The Present Session Because Most Of The Members Of The Congress Are Thinking In Terms Of Next Autumn's Election. However, That Is One Of The Prices That We Who Live In Democracies Have To Pay. It Is, However, Worth Paying, If All Of Us Can Avoid The Type Of Government Under Which The Unfortunate Population Of Germany And Russia Must Exist.

It Was Natural And Perhaps Human That The Privileged Princes Of These New Economic Dynasties, Thirsting For Power, Reached Out For Control Over Government Itself. They Created A New Despotism And Wrapped It In The Robes Of Legal Sanction. ...and As A Result The Average Man Once More Confronts The Problem That Faced The Minute Man.

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.

Our National Determination To Keep Free Of Foreign Wars And Foreign Entanglements Cannot Prevent Us From Feeling Deep Concern When Ideals And Principles That We Have Cherished Are Challenged.

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

All That Is Within Me Cries Out To Go Back To My Home On The Hudson River

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.

Your Profits Are Going To Be Cut Down To A Reasonably Low Level By Taxation. Your Income Will Be Subject To Higher Taxes. Indeed In These Days, When Every Available Dollar Should Go To The War Effort, I Do Not Think That Any American Citizen Should Have A Net Income In Excess Of $25,000 Per Year After Payment Of Taxes.

It Is One Of The Characteristics Of A Free And Democratic Nation That It Have Free And Independent Labor Unions.

Organized Labor

The Royalists Of The Economic Order Have Conceded That Political Freedom Was The Business Of The Government, But They Have Maintained That Economic Slavery Was Nobody's Business. They Granted That The Government Could Protect The Citizen In His Right To Vote, But They Denied That The Government Could Do Anything To Protect The Citizen In His Right To Work And His Right To Live. Today 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.

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.

I Think This Would Be A Good Time For A Beer.

Nobody Will Ever Deprive The American People Of The Right To Vote Except The American People Themselves And The Only Way They Could Do This Is By Not Voting.

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

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.

This Law Represents A Cornerstone In A Structure Which Is Being Built But Is By No Means Completed--a Structure Intended To Lessen The Force Of Possible Future Depressions, To Act As A Protection To Future Administrations Of The Government Against The Necessity Of Going Deeply Into Debt To Furnish Relief To The Needy--a Law To Flatten Out The Peaks And Valleys Of Deflation And Of Inflation--in Other Words, A Law That Will Take Care Of Human Needs And At The Same Time Provide For The United States An Economic Structure Of Vastly Greater Soundness.

There Is One Front And One Battle Where Everyone In The United States-every Man, Woman, And Child-is In Action, And Will Be Privileged To Remain In Action Throughout This War. That Front Is Right Here At Home, In Our Daily Lives, And In Our Daily Tasks.

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.

We Think Of Our Land And Water And Human Resources Not As Static And Sterile Possessions But As Life Giving Assets To Be Directed By Wise Provisions For Future Days.

My Own Party Can Succeed At The Polls Only So Long As It Continues To Be The Party Of Militant Liberalism.

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

Our Handicaps Exist Only In Our Minds.

There Comes A Time In The Affairs Of Men When They Must Prepare To Defend Not Their Homes Alone But The Tenets Of Faith And Humanity On Which Their Churches, Their Governments And Their Very Foundations Are Set. The Defense Of Religion, Of Democracy And Of Good Faith Among Nations Is All The Same Fight. To Save One, We Must Now Make Up Our Minds To Save All.

The Nazi Danger To Our Western World Has Long Ceased To Be A Mere Possibility. The Danger Is Here Now--not Only From A Military Enemy But From An Enemy Of All Law, All Liberty, All Morality, All Religion.

The Function Of Government Must Be To Favor No Small Group At The Expense Of Its Duty To Protect The Rights Of Personal Freedom And Of Private Property Of All Its Citizens.

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.

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.

In The Truest Sense, Freedom Cannot Be Bestowed; It Must Be Achieved.

I've Fired My Last Shot. I Think I Should Have Another Round In My Belt.

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

A Great Man Left A Watchword That We Can Well Repeat: "there Is No Indispensable Man"

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."

The Very Nature And Purposes Of Government Make It Impossible For Administrative Officials To Represent Fully Or To Bind The Employer In Mutual Discussions With Government Employee Organizations.

I Read In A Newspaper That I Was To Be Received With All The Honors Customarily Rendered To A Foreign Ruler. I Am Grateful For The Honors; But Something Within Me Rebelled At That Word 'foreign'. I Say This Because When I Have Been In Canada, I Have Never Heard A Canadian Refer To An American As A 'foreigner'. He Is Just An 'american'. And, In The Same Way, In The United States, Canadians Are Not 'foreigners', They Are 'canadians'. That Simple Little Distinction Illustrates To Me Better Than Anything Else The Relationship Between Our Two Countries.

I Pledge You, Pledge Myself, To A New Deal For The American People. Let Us All Here Assembled Constitute Ourselves Prophets Of A New Order Of Competence And Of Courage. This Is More Than A Political Campaign; It Is A Call To Arms. Give Me Your Help, Not To Win Votes Alone, But To Win In This Crusade To Restore America To Its Own People.

Are You Laboring Under The Impression That I Read These Memoranda Of Yours? I Can't Even Lift Them.

The Nation That Destroys Its Soil Destroys Itself.

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.

Victory And Defeat

You Cannot Organize Civilization Around The Core Of Militarism And At The Same Time Expect Reason To Control Human Destinies.

Self-help And Self-control Are The Essence Of The American Tradition.

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

Repetition Does Not Transform A Lie Into A Truth.

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.

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

Inquisitiveness Is The Most Useful Talent.

I See One-third Of A Nation Ill-housed, Ill-clad, Ill-nourished.

[m]y Conception Of Liberty Does Not Permit An Individual Citizen Or A Group Of Citizens To Commit Acts Of Depredation Against Nature In Such A Way As To Harm Their Neighbors And Especially To Harm The Future Generations Of Americans. If Many Years Ago We Had Had The Necessary Knowledge, And Especially The Necessary Willingness On The Part Of The Federal Government, We Would Have Saved A Sum, A Sum Of Money Which Has Cost The Taxpayers Of America Two Billion Dollars.

It Is The Duty Of The President To Propose And It Is The Privilege Of The Congress To Dispose.

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

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

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.

To A Great Extent The Achievements Of Invention, Of Mechanical And Of Artistic Creation, Must Of Necessity, And Rightly, Be Individual Rather Than Governmental. It Is The Self-reliant Pioneer In Every Enterprise Who Beats The Path Along Which American Civilization Has Marched. Such Individual Effort Is The Glory Of America.

Individual Effort

Those (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.

We Have Learned That We Cannot Live Alone, At Peace; That Our Own Well-being Is Dependent On The Well-being Of Other Nations Far Away. We Have Learned That We Must Live As Men, Not As Ostriches, Nor As Dogs In The Manger.

Every Time An Artist Dies, Part Of The Vision Of Mankind Passes With Him.

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.

...since 1775 The United States Marines Have Upheld A Fine Tradition Of Service To Their Country. They Are Doing So Today. I Am Confident They Will Continue To Do So.

You Are, I Am Sure, Aware That Genuine Popular Support In The United States Is Required To Carry Out Any Government Policy, Foreign Or Domestic. The American People Make Up Their Own Minds And No Governmental Action Can Change It.

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 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.

The Overwhelming Majority Of Americans Are Possessed Of Two Great Qualities A Sense Of Humor And A Sense Of Proportion.

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...

World Government

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.

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

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.

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 Beginning Of All Wars - Yes, An End To This Brutal, Inhuman And Thoroughly Impractical Method Of Settling The Differences Between Governments.

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.

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

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

Pearl Harbor Day

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.

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.

What I Seek Is The Highest Possible Batting Average.

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

The Trade Agreement Which I Had The Privilege Of Signing With Your Prime Minister Last Autumn Is Tangible Evidence Of The Desire Of The People Of Both Countries To Practice What They Preach When They Speak Of The Good Neighbor. In The Solution Of The Grave Problems That Face The World Today, Frank Dealing, Cooperation And A Spirit Of Give And Take Between Nations Is More Important Than Ever Before.

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

Collective Bargaining

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.

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.

For Out Of This Modern Civilization Economic Royalists Carved New Dynasties. New Kingdoms Were Built Upon Concentration Of Control Over Material Things. Through New Uses Of Corporations, Banks And Securities, New Machinery Of Industry And Agriculture, Of Labor And Capital - All Undreamed Of By The Fathers - The Whole Structure Of Modern Life Was Impressed Into This Royal Service.

We Have Learned The Simple Truth, As Emerson Said That The Only Way To Have A Friend Is To Be One. We Can Gain No Lasting Peace If We Approach It With Suspicion Or Mistrust Or With Fear.

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.

I Have Seen Children Starving. I Have Seen The Agony Of Mothers And Wives. I Hate War.

Never Underestimate A Man Who Overestimates Himself.

Failure Is Not An American Habit.

Let Us Never Forget That Government Is Ourselves And Not An Alien Power Over Us.

Democracies Have

Freedom Means The Supremacy Of Human Rights Everywhere. Our Support Goes To Those Who Struggle To Gain Those Rights Or Keep Them.

We, And All Others Who Believe In Freedom As Deeply As We Do, Would Rather Die On Our Feet Than Live On Our Knees.

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

All Private Plans, All Private Lives, Have Been In A Sense Repealed By An Overriding Public Danger.

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

Peace, Like Charity, Begins At Home.

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.

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.

This Generation

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

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.

Sports Is The Very Fiber Of All We Stand For. It Keeps Our Spirits Alive.

Great Power Involves Great Responsibility

Power And Responsibility

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

The Country Needs And, Unless I Mistake Its Temper, The Country Demands Bold, Persistent Experimentation .

In Our Democracy Officers Of The Government Are The Servants, And Never The Masters Of The People.

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

Beware Of That Profound Enemy Of The Free Enterprise System Who Pays Lip-service To Free Competition, But Also Labels Every Antitrust Prosecution As A Persecution.

The Lessons Of History, Confirmed By The Evidence Immediately Before Me, Show Conclusively That Continued Dependence Upon Relief Induces A Spiritual Disintegration Fundamentally Destructive To The National Fiber. To Dole Out Relief In This Way Is To Administer A Narcotic, A Subtle Destroyer Of The Human Spirit. It Is Inimical To The Dictates Of A Sound Policy. It Is In Violation Of The Traditions Of America.

Welfare Programs

They Fight Not For The Lust Of Conquest. They Fight To End Conquest. They Fight To Liberate.

It Is Highly Unlikely That An Airplane, Or Fleet Of Them, Could Ever Sink A Fleet Of Navy Vessels Under Battle Conditions.

New Ideas Can Be Good And Bad, Just The Same As Old Ones.

It Is The Purpose Of The Government To See That Not Only The Legitimate Interests Of The Few Are Protected But That The Welfare And Rights Of The Many Are Conserved.

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

In A Democratic Nation, Power Must Be Linked With Responsibility, And Obliged To Defend And Justify Itself Within The Framework Of The General Good.

To Some Generations Much Is Given. Of Other Generations, Much Is Expected.

This Generation

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

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.

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.

A World Turned Into A Stereotype, A Society Converted Into A Regiment, A Life Translated Into A Routine, Make It Difficult For Either Art Or Artists To Survive. Crush Individuality In Society And You Crush Art As Well. Nourish The Conditions Of A Free Life And You Nourish The Arts, Too.

We Have Our Difficulties, True; But We Are A Wiser And A Tougher Nation Than We Were In 1932. Never Have There Been Six Years Of Such Far Flung Internal Preparedness In All Of History. And This Has Been Done Without Any Dictator's Power To Command, Without Conscription Of Labor Or Confiscation Of Capital, Without Concentration Camps And Without A Scratch On Freedom Of Speech, Freedom Of The Press Or The Rest Of The Bill Of Rights.

Freedom Of Speech

I Sometimes Think We Consider Too Much The Good Luck Of The Early Bird And Not Enough The Bad Luck Of The Early Worm.

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

People Acting Together As A Group Can Accomplish Things Which No Individual Acting Alone Could Ever Hope To Bring About.

...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.

Peace Can Endure Only So Long As Humanity Really Insists Upon It, And Is Willing To Work For It And Sacrifice For It.

Not Only Our Future Economic Soundness But The Very Soundness Of Our Democratic Institutions Depends On The Determination Of Our Government To Give Employment To Idle Men.

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.

I Have Seen War. I Have Seen War On Land And Sea. I Have Seen Blood Running From The Wounded. I Have Seen Men Coughing Out Their Gassed Lungs. I Have Seen The Dead In The Mud. I Have Seen Cities Destroyed. I Have Seen 200 Limping, Exhausted Men Come Out Of Line—the Survivors Of A Regiment Of 1,000 That Went Forward 48 Hours Before. I Have Seen Children Starving. I Have Seen The Agony Of Mothers And Wives. I Hate War.

It Is The Habit Of The Unthinking To Turn To The Illusions Of Economic Magic. These Unhappy Times Call For The Building Of Plans That Put Their Faith Once More In The Forgotten Man At The Bottom Of The Economic Pyramid

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

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.

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

To Reach A Port We Must Set Sail

Necessitous Men Are Not Free Men.

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.

Lord, Reform Thy World, Beginning With Me.

I Ask You To Judge Me By The Enemies I Have Made.

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.

Rules Are Not Necessarily Sacred, Principles Are.

Our Security Is Not A Matter Of Weapons Alone. The Arm That Wields Them Must Be Strong, The Eye That Guides Them Clear, The Will That Directs Them Indomitable.

No Democracy Can Long Survive Which Does Not Accept As Fundamental To Its Very Existence The Recognition Of The Rights Of Minorities.

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

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.

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

Against Naked Force The Only Possible Defense Is Naked Force. The Aggressor Makes The Rules For Such A War; The Defenders Have No Alternative But Matching Destruction With More Destruction, Slaughter With Greater Slaughter.

No Man Can Tame A Tiger Into A Kitten By Stroking It. There Can Be No Appeasement With Ruthlessness. There Can Be No Reasoning With An Incendiary Bomb.

We Need Enthusiasm, Imagination And The Ability To Face Facts, Even Unpleasant Ones, Bravely. We Need To Correct, By Drastic Means If Necessary, The Faults In Our Economic System From Which We Now Suffer. We Need The Courage Of The Young. Yours Is Not The Task Of Making Your Way In The World, But The Task Of Remaking The World Which You Will Find Before You. May Every One Of Us Be Granted The Courage, The Faith And The Vision To Give The Best That Is In Us To That Remaking!

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Clare Boothe Luce

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