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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.

-Franklin D. Roosevelt

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The Moment A Mere

Franklin D. Roosevelt

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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.

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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.

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 Man Can Tame A Tiger Into A Kitten By Stroking It.

Pearl Harbor Day

Books Cannot Be Killed By Fire.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

No Political Party Has Exclusive Patent Rights On Prosperity.

The Forgotten Man At The Bottom Of The Economic Pyramid.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

All Safe Deposit Boxes In Banks Or Financial Institutions Have Been Sealed... And May Only Be Opened In The Presence Of An Agent Of The I.r.s.

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

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.

First Of All, Let Me Assert My Firm Belief That The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is Fear Itself - Nameless, Unreasoning, Unjustified Terror Which Paralyzes Needed Efforts To Convert Retreat Into Advance.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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!

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.

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

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

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.

If You Have Spent Two Years In Bed Trying To Wiggle Your Big Toe, Everything Else Seems Easy.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

Rules Are Not Necessarily Sacred, Principles Are.

What I Seek Is The Highest Possible Batting Average.

The Ultimate Victory Of Tomorrow Is Democracy, And Through Democracy With Education, For No People In All The World Can Be Kept Eternally Ignorant Or Eternally Enslaved.

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

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.

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.

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

I Have A Terrific Headache.

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

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.

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

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

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

Remember You Are Just An Extra In Everyone Else's Play.

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

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

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

Let Us Move Forward With Strong And Active Faith.

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

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.

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

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.

I Am Perhaps Being A Bit Facetious But If Some Of My Good Baptist Brethren In Georgia Had Done A Little Preaching From The Pulpitagainst The K.k.k. In The '20s, I Would Have A Little More Genuine American Respect For Their Christianity!

(mariners) Have Written One Of Its Most Brilliant Chapters. They Have Delivered The Goods When And Where Needed In Every Theater Of Operations And Across Every Ocean In The Biggest, The Most Difficult And Dangerous Job Ever Undertaken. As Time Goes On, There Will Be Greater Public Understanding Of Our Merchant's Fleet Record During This War.

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

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.

This Great Nation Will Endure As It Has Endured, Will Revive And Will Prosper. So, First Of All, Let Me Assert My Firm Belief That The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is Fear Itself.

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

We Know That There Are Chiselers. At The Bottom Of Every Case Of Criticism And Obstruction We Have Found Some Selfish Interest, Some Private Axe To Grind.

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.

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.

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.

No Business Is Above Government; And Government Must Be Empowered To Deal Adequately With Any Business That Tries To Rise Above Government.

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.

The Only Limit To Our Realization Of Tomorrow Will Be Our Doubts Of Today.

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

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.

To Reach A Port We Must Set Sail

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

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

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

It Is Better To Swallow Words Than To Have To Eat Them Later.

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

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

Peace, Like Charity, Begins At Home.

It [concentration Of Wealth And Power] Has Been A Menace To . . . American Democracy.

Concentration Of Wealth

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

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 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.

'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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

Wise And Prudent Men And Intelligent Conservatives Have Long Known That In A Changing World Worthy Institutions Can Be Conserved Only By Adjusting Them To The Changing Time.

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

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.

True Individual Freedom Cannot Exist Without Economic Security And Independence. People Who Are Hungry And Out Of A Job Are The Stuff Of Which Dictatorships Are Made.

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.

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

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

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.

[the United States Is] Founded On The Principles Of Christianity

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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

The Frontier Of America Is On The Rhine.

The United States Constitution Has Proved Itself The Most Marvelously Elastic Compilation Of Rules Of Government Ever Written.

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.

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

More Than Just An End To War, We Want An End To The Beginnings Of All Wars.

We Count, In The Future As In The Past, On The Driving Power Of Individual Initiative, On The Incentive Of Fair Private Profit, Strengthened Of Course With The Acceptance Of Those Obligations To The Public Interest Which Rest Upon Us All.

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

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.

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

Forests Are The Lungs Of Our Land.

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

Presidents Are Selected, Not Elected.

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 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.

The Hand That Held The Dagger Has Struck It Into The Back Of Its Neighbor.

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

Private Enterprise Is Ceasing To Be Free Enterprise.

Free Enterprise

Private Enterprise

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

Democracies Have

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

Self-interest Is The Enemy Of All True Affection.

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.

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

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

On This Tenth Day Of June, Nineteen Hundred And Forty, The Hand That Held The Dagger Has Struck It Into The Back Of Its Neighbor.... In Our Unity, In Our American Unity We Will Pursue Two Obvious And Simultaneous Courses; We Will Extend To The Opponents Of Force The Material Resources Of This Nation, And At The Same Time We Will Harness And Speed Up The Use Of Those Resources In Order That We Ourselves In The Americas May Have Equipment And Training Equal To The Task Of Any Emergency And Every Defense.

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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 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 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.

"appeasement" Is The Policy Of Feeding Your Friends To A Crocodile, One At A Time, In Hopes That The Crocodile Will Eat You Last.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

The Truth Is Found When Men Are Free To Pursue It.

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

There Are As Many Opinions As There Are Experts.

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.

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.

A Point Has Been Reached Where The Peoples Of The Americas Must Take Cognizance Of Growing Ill-will, Of Marked Trends Toward Aggression, Of Increasing Armaments, Of Shortening Tempers--a Situation Which Has In It Many Of The Elements That Lead To The Tragedy Of General War.... Peace Is Threatened By Those Who Seek Selfish Power.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

The Chief Problem Is, Of Course, Whether The Marching Of The General Spirit Of Things Is Heading Consciously Or Sub- Consciously Toward An Idea Of Extension Of Boundaries.

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.

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.

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

...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.

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.

Taxes, After All, Are Dues That We Pay For The Privileges Of Membership In An Organized Society.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

No Country, However Rich, Can Afford The Waste Of Its Human Resources. Demoralization Caused By Vast Unemployment Is Our Greatest Extravagance. Morally, It Is The Greatest Menace To Our Social Order.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Once I Prophesied That This Generation Of Americans Had A Rendezvous With Destiny. That Prophecy Now Comes True. To Us Much Is Given; More Is Expected. This Generation Will Nobly Save Or Mainly Lose The Last Best Hope Of Earth. The Way Is Plain, Peaceful, Generous Just. A Way, Which If Followed, The World Will Forever Applaud, And God Must Forever Bless.

Any Government, Like Any Family, Can For A Year Spend A Little More Than It Earns. But You And I Know That A Continuation Of That Habit Means The Poorhouse.

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

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

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