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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!

-Franklin D. Roosevelt

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Of Course We Believe

Franklin D. Roosevelt

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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!

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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.

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.

The Forgotten Man At The Bottom Of The Economic Pyramid.

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.

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.

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

Our True Destiny Is Not To Be Ministered Unto But To Minister To Ourselves And To Our Fellow Men.

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.

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

The True Conservative Is The Man Who Has A Real Concern For Injustices And Takes Thought Against The Day Of Reckoning.

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

This Generation Of Americans Has A Rendezvous With Destiny.

This Generation

It Has Always Seemed To Me That The Best Symbol Of Common Sense Was A Bridge.

To Carry Adequate Life Insurance Is A Moral Obligation Incumbent Upon The Great Majority Of Citizens.

I Call For Effort, Courage, Sacrifice, Devotion. Granting The Love Of Freedom, All Of These Are Possible. And The Love Of Freedom Is Still Fierce And Steady In The Nation Today. June 10, 1940

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.

Let Me Make It Clear That I Do Not Assert That A President And The Congress Must On All Points Agree With Each Other At All Times. Many Times In History There Has Been Complete Disagreement Between The Two Branches Of The Government, And In These Disagreements Sometimes The Congress Has Won And Sometimes The President Has Won. But During The Administration Of The Present President We Have Had Neither Agreement Nor A Clear-cut Battle.

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

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.

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.

There Has Been One Persistent Theme Through All Axis Propaganda. This Theme Has Been That Americans Are Admittedly Rich, That Americans Have Considerable Industrial Power - But That Americans Are Soft And Decadent, That They Cannot And Will Not Unite And Work And Fight. ... Let Them Tell That To The Marines!

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

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.

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.

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

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

Too Often In Recent History Liberal Governments Have Been Wrecked On Rocks Of Loose Fiscal Policy.

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.

Above All, Try Something

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

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.

Be Sincere; Be Brief; Be Seated.

Coming To Grips With The Reality That Our Planet Is Not The Only One Harboring Intelligent Life The Universe.

The School Is The Last Expenditure Upon Which America Should Be Willing To Economize.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Every Man Has A Right To Life, And This Means That He Has Also A Right To Make A Comfortable Living.

Let Us Move Forward With Strong And Active Faith.

We Have Nothing To Fear But Fear Itself.

And While I Am Talking To You Mothers And Fathers, I Give You One More Assurance. I Have Said This Before, But I Shall Say It Again And Again And Again: Your Boys Are Not Going To Be Sent Into Any Foreign Wars.

To Bring About Government By Oligarchy, Masquerading As Democracy, It Is Fundamentally Essential That Practically All Authority And Control Be Centralized In Our Federal Government. . . The Individual Sovereignty Of Our States Must First Be Destroyed.

Democracy Alone, Of All Forms Of Government, Enlists The Full Force Of Men's Enlightened Will.

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

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.

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

There Can Be Little Doubt That In Many Ways The Story Of Bridge Building Is The Story Of Civilisation. By It We Can Readily Measure An Important Part Of A People's Progress.

The Hopes Of The Republic Cannot Forever Tolerate Either Undeserved Poverty Or Self-serving Wealth.

...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.

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

Lord, Reform Thy World, Beginning With Me.

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.

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

It Takes A Long Time To Bring The Past Up To The Present.

I've Never Been Unemployed. I've Never Been Very Fully Employed Either.

It Is Fun To Be In The Same Decade With You.

We Must Save The Constitution From The [supreme] Court And The Court From Itself.

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

Chamberlain's Visit To Hitler Today May Bring Things To A Head Or May Result In A Temporary Postponement Of What Looks To Me Likean Inevitable Conflict Within The Next Five Years.

Among American Citizens, There Should Be No Forgotten Men And No Forgotten Races.

I Am Neither Bitter Nor Cynical But I Do Wish There Was Less Immaturity In Political Thinking.

Calm Seas Never Made A Good Sailor

I Hope That You Have Re-read The Constitution Of The United States In These Past Few Weeks. Like The Bible, It Ought To Be Read Again And Again.

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.

Books Cannot Be Killed By Fire.

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

We Want A Supreme Court Which Will Do Justice Under The Constitution - Not Over It. In Our Courts We Want A Government Of Laws And Not Of Men.

To Reach A Port, We Must Sail - Sail, Not Tie At Anchor - Sail, Not Drift.

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.

Economic Diseases Are Highly Communicable. It Follows Therefore That The Economic Health Of Every Country Is A Proper Matter Of Concern To All Its Neighbors, Near Or Distant.

I Do Not Look Upon These United States As A Finished Product. We Are Still In The Making.

I Love It--i Just Love It.

I Never Forget That I Live In A House Owned By All The American People And That I Have Been Given Their Trust.

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.

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. . .

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

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

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.

Favor Comes Because For A Brief Moment In The Great Space Of Human Change And Progress Some General Human Purpose Finds In Him A Satisfactory Embodiment.

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 Real Safeguard Of Democracy Is Education.

The Fate Of America Cannot Depend On Any One Man. The Greatness Of America Is Grounded In Principles And Not On Any Single Personality.

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

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

There Is No Group In America That Can Withstand The Force Of An Aroused Public Opinion.

These Are Bad Days For All Of Us Who Remember Always That When Real World Forces Come Into Conflict, The Final Result Is Never As Dark As We Mortals Guess It In Very Difficult Days.

'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.

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.

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.

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

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.

You Sometimes Find Something Good In The Lunatic Fringe. In Fact, We Have Got As Part Of Our Social And Economic Government Today A Whole Lot Of Things Which In My Boyhood Were Considered Lunatic Fringe, And Yet They Are Now Part Of Everyday Life.

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

Presidents Are Selected, Not Elected.

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.

Friendship Among Nations, As Among Individuals, Calls For Constructive Efforts To Muster The Forces Of Humanity In Order That An Atmosphere Of Close Understanding And Cooperation May Be Cultivated.

Those Who Have Long Enjoyed Such Privileges As We Enjoy Forget In Time That Men Have Died To Win Them." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Taxes Are Paid In The Sweat Of Every Man Who Labors. If Those Taxes Are Excessive, They Are Reflected In Idle Factories, In Tax-sold Farms, And In Hordes Of Hungry People, Tramping The Streets And Seeking Jobs In Vain. Our Workers May Never See A Tax Bill, But They Pay. They Pay In Deductions From Wages, In Increased Cost Of What They Buy, Or - As Now - In Broad Unemployment Throughout The Land.

I Am A Christian And A Democrat, That's All.

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.

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.

We Had To Struggle With The Old Enemies Of Peace - Business And Financial Monopoly, Speculation, Reckless Banking, Class Antagonism, Sectionalism, War Profiteering

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

Necessitous Men Are Not Free Men.

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!

We Have Nothing To Fear But Missing Our Massage Appointment Time

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

The American People Want Their Government To Act, And Not Merely To Talk, Whenever And Wherever There Is A Threat To World Peace.

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.

Men And Nature Must Work Hand In Hand. The Throwing Out Of Balance Of The Resources Of Nature Throws Out Of Balance Also The Lives Of Men.

What Worries Me, Especially, Is That Public Opinion Over Here Is Patting Itself On The Back Every Morning And Thanking God For Theatlantic Ocean (and The Pacific Ocean). We Greatly Underestimate The Serious Implications To Our Own Future.... Things Move With Such Terrific Speed These Days, That It Is Really Essential To Us To Think In Broader Terms And, In Effect, To Warn The American People That They, Too, Should Think Of Possible Ultimate Results In Europe And The Far East.

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

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.

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

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

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.

If You Treat People Right They Will Treat You Right... Ninety Percent Of The Time.

True Wealth Is Not A Static Thing. It Is A Living Thing Made Out Of The Disposition Of Men To Create And Distribute The Good Things Of Life With Rising Standards Of Living.

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.

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

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.

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

The Country Needs And, Unless I Mistake Its Temper, The Country Demands Bold, Persistent Experimentation. 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 Millions Who Are In Want Will Not Stand By Silently Forever While The Things To Satisfy Their Needs Are Within Easy Reach.

Dec. 7, 1941 - A Date Which Will Live In Infamy - 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.

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

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.

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.

Don't Forget What I Discovered That Over Ninety Percent Of All National Deficits From 1921 To 1939 Were Caused By Payments For Past, Present, And Future Wars.

Here Is My Principle: Taxes Shall Be Levied According To Ability To Pay. That Is The Only American Principle.

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

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 Most Difficult Place In The World To Get A Clear And Open Perspective Of The Country As A Whole Is Washington.

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.

I Have A Terrific Headache.

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

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.

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

Organized Money Hates Me--and I Welcome Their Hatred!

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

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.

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.

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

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!

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

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.

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.

I Have An Unshaken Conviction That Democracy Can Never Be Undermined If We Maintain Our Library Resources And A National Intelligence Capable Of Utilizing Them.

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

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

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

Organized Labor

Freedom Of Speech...freedom Of Worship...freedom From Want...freedom From Fear.

Freedom Of Speech

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 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.

One Reason--perhaps The Chief--of The Virility Of The Roosevelts Is [their] Very Democratic Spirit. They Have Never Felt That Because They Were Born In A Good Position They Could Put Their Hands In Their Pockets And Succeed. They Have Felt, Rather, That Being Born In A Good Position, There Is No Excuse For Them If They Did Not Do Their Duty By The Community.

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.

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.

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.

Failure Is Not An American Habit.

There Is Much To Be Said Against The Climate On The Coast Of British Columbia And Alaska; Yet, I Believe That The Scenery Of One Good Day Will Compensate The Tourists Who Will Go There In Increasing Numbers.

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

Do Not Confuse Objectives With Methods. When The Nation Becomes Substantially United In Favor Of Planning The Broad Objectives Of Civilization, Then True Leadership Must Unite Thought Behind Definite Methods.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

To Reach A Port We Must Set Sail

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.

The Barrier To Success Is Not Something Which Exists In The Real World; It Is Composed Purely And Simply Of Doubts About Ability.

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.

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

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

Never Before Have We Had So Little Time In Which To Do So Much.

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 - And I Am Not Wholly Excepting The Administration Of W. W. The Country Is Going Through A Repetition Of Jackson's Fight With The Bank Of The United States - Only On A Far Bigger And Broader Basis.

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.

More Striking Still, It Appeared That, If The Process Of Concentration Goes On At The Same Rate, At The End Of Another Century We Shall Have All American Industry Controlled By A Dozen Corporations And Run By Perhaps A Hundred Men. Put Plainly, We Are Steering A Steady Course Toward Economic Oligarchy, If We Are Not There Already.

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.

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.

Tell That To The Marines!

Our National Debt After All Is An Internal Debt Owed Not Only By The Nation But To The Nation. If Our Children Have To Pay Interest On It They Will Pay That Interest To Themselves. A Reasonable Internal Debt Will Not Impoverish Our Children Or Put The Nation Into Bankruptcy.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Moral Leadership

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

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

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

Prosperous Farmers Mean More Employment, More Prosperity For The Workers And The Business Men Of Every Industrial Area In The Whole Country.

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

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

Go For The Moon. If You Don't Get It, You'll Still Be Heading For A Star. Happiness Lies Not In The Mere Possession Of Money; It Lies In The Joy Of Achievement, In The Thrill Of The Creative Effort.

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William F. Buckley, Jr.

Mignon McLaughlin

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