Background Image

...

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.

-Franklin D. Roosevelt

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

This Law Represents A

Franklin D. Roosevelt

...

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.

Views: 6

Topic

More From Franklin D. Roosevelt

Let Us Not Confuse Objectives With Methods. Too Many So-called Leaders Of The Nation Fail To See The Forest Because Of The Trees. Too Many Of Them Fail To Recognize The Vital Necessity Of Planning For Definite Objectives. True Leadership Calls For The Setting Forth Of The Objectives And The Rallying Of Public Opinion In Support Of These Objectives.

Competition Has Been Shown To Be Useful Up To A Certain Point And No Further, But Cooperation, Which Is The Thing We Must Strive For Today, Begins Where Competition Leaves Off.

The Frontier Of America Is On The Rhine.

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

All Of Our People All Over The Country-except The Pure-blooded Indians-are Immigrants Or Descendants Of Immigrants, Including Even Those Who Came Over Here On The Mayflower.

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.

So Many Figures Are Quoted To Prove So Many Things. Sometimes It Depends On What Paper You Read Or What Broadcast You Listen In On.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Tell That To The Marines!

Our Government Is Based On The Belief That A People Can Be Both Strong And Free, That Civilized Men Need No Restraint But That Imposed By Themselves Against Abuse Of Freedom.

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.

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

People Die, But Books Never Die.

...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.

I Hope That Your Committee Will Not Permit Doubt As To Constitutionality, However Reasonable, To Block The Suggested Legislation

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

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

Meaning Of Life

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.

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

What I Seek Is The Highest Possible Batting Average.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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

Freedom Of Speech

Men Are Not Prisoners Of Fate, But Only Prisoners Of Their Own Minds.

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.

Unless The Peace That Follows Recognizes That The Whole World Is One Neighborhood And Does Justice To The Whole Human Race, The Germs Of Another World War Will Remain As A Constant Threat To Mankind.

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

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

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

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

I Have Seen War ... I Hate War.

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

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.

We Know Now That Government By Organized Money Is Just As Dangerous As Government By Organized Mob.

People Die, But Books Never Die. No Man And No Force Can Abolish Memory.

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

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

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

Pursuit Of Happiness

...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.

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.

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 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.

We Have Always Held To The Hope, The Belief, The Conviction That There Is A Better Life, A Better World, Beyond The Horizon.

I Love It--i Just Love It.

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.

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

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.

History Proves That Dictatorships Do Not Grow Out Of Strong And Successful Governments, But Out Of Weak And Helpless Ones. If By Democratic Methods People Get A Government Strong Enough To Protect Them From Fear And Starvation, Their Democracy Succeeds; But If They Do Not, They Grow Impatient. Therefore, The Only Sure Bulwark Of Continuing Liberty Is A Government Strong Enough To Protect The Interests Of The People, And A People Strong Enough And Well Enough Informed To Maintain Its Sovereign Control Over Its Government.

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.

Great Power Involves Great Responsibility

Power And Responsibility

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

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

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.

No Greater Tragedy Exists In Modern Civilization Than The Aged, Worn-out Worker Who After A Life Of Ceaseless Effort And Useful Productivity Must Look Forward For His Declining Years To A Poorhouse. A Modern Social Consciousness Demands A More Humane And Efficient Arrangement.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Inquisitiveness Is The Most Useful Talent.

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.

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

Old Women Are The Secret To The Fluffiest Cakes.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Peace, Like Charity, Begins At Home.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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 Know Now That Government By Organized Money Is Just As Dangerous As Government By Organized Mob.... [the Organized Moneyed People] Are Unanimous In Their Hate For Me And I Welcome Their Hatred.... I Should Like To Have It Said Of My Second Administration That These Forces Met Their Master.

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

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.

Change Is Like Fire- If Uncontrolled, It Will Consume Us.

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.

Our Handicaps Exist Only In Our Minds.

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.

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

No Political Party Has Exclusive Patent Rights On Prosperity.

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

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

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

Working Conditions

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.

A Liberal Is A Man Who Uses His Legs And His Hands At The Behest-at The Command-of His Head.

Freedom Of The Press Is Essential To The Preservation Of A Democracy; But There Is A Difference Between Freedom And License. Editorialists Who Tell Downright Lies In Order To Advance Their Own Agendas Do More To Discredit The Press Than All The Censors In The World.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

I Have A Terrific Headache.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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 Public Schools Shall Be Free From Sectarian Influences And, Above All, Free From Any Attitude Of Hostility To The Adherents Of Any Particular Creed.

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.

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.

Since Becoming President, I Have Come To Know That The Finest Of Americans We Have Abroad Today Are The Missionaries Of The Cross. I Am Humiliated That I Am Not Finding This Out Until This Late Day The Worth Of Foreign Missions And The Nobility Of The Missionaries.

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

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

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

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 My Inaugural I Laid Down The Simple Proposition That Nobody Is Going To Starve In This Country. It Seems To Me To Be Equally Plain That No Business Which Depends For Existence On Paying Less Than Living Wages To Its Workers Has Any Right To Continue In This Country. By "business" I Mean The Whole Of Commerce As Well As The Whole Of Industry; By Workers I Mean All Workers, The White Collar Class As Well As The Men In Overalls; And By Living Wages I Mean More Than A Bare Subsistence Level - I Mean The Wages Of Decent Living.

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

Thanksgiving Day

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

Moral Leadership

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

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

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

Concentration Of Wealth

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 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.

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

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.

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

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.

Presidents Are Selected, Not Elected.

A Government Can Be No Better Than The Public Opinion Which Sustains 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.

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

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

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.

A Serf-supporting And Self-respecting Democracy Can Plead No Justification For The Existence Of Child Labor, No Economic Reason For Chiseling Workers' Wages Or Stretching Workers' Hours.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Democracy, The Practice Of Self-government, Is A Covenant Among Free Men To Respect The Rights And Liberties Of Their Fellows.

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

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

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

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.

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

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 Real Safeguard Of Democracy Is Education.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Be Sincere; Be Brief; Be Seated.

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

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.

We Must Be The Great Arsenal Of Democracy.

Courage Is Not The Absence Of Fear, But Rather The Assessment That Something Else Is More Important Than Fear.

The Forgotten Man At The Bottom Of The Economic Pyramid.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Do Something. If It Works, Do More Of It. If It Doesn't, Do Something Else.

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

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 Pledge You, I Pledge Myself, To A New Deal For The American People.

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.

Trending Author

Nathan Meyer Rothschild

Tracee Ellis Ross

Henry Louis Gates

Category