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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.

-Franklin D. Roosevelt

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We, Too, Born To

Franklin D. Roosevelt

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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.

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

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

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

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

To Reach A Port We Must Set Sail

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

The 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.

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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!

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

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.

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

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 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.

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

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.

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

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

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 Love It--i Just Love It.

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

Moral Leadership

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Failure Is Not An American Habit.

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.

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.

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

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

In The Field Of World Policy; I Would Dedicate This Nation To The Policy Of The Good Neighbor.

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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

The Point In History At Which We Stand Is Full Of Promise And Danger. The World Will Either Move Forward Toward Unity And Widely Shared Prosperity - Or It Will Move Apart.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Meaning Of Life

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

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

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.

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

This Generation

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.

'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.

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.

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

No Political Party Has Exclusive Patent Rights On Prosperity.

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

Thanksgiving Day

Great Power Involves Great Responsibility

Power And Responsibility

What I Seek Is The Highest Possible Batting Average.

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

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

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

Pearl Harbor Day

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

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

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.

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.

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.

They Realize That In Thirty-four Months We Have Built Up New Instruments Of Public Power. In The Hands Of A Peoples Government This Power Is Wholesome And Proper. But In The Hands Of Political Puppets Of An Economic Autocracy Such Power Would Provide Shackles For The Liberties Of The People.

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

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

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

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.

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.

Government Cannot Close Its Eyes To The Pollution Of Waters, To The Erosion Of Soil, To The Slashing Of Forests Any More Than It Can Close Its Eyes To The Need For Slum Clearance And Schools.

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

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

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

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 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

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.

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.

Old Women Are The Secret To The Fluffiest Cakes.

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 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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Happiness Lies Not In The Mere Possession Of Money; It Lies In The Joy Of Achievement, In The Thrill Of Creative Effort. The Joy And Moral Stimulation Of Work No Longer Must Be Forgotten In The Mad Chase Of Evanescent Profits. These Dark Days Will Be Worth All They Cost Us If They Teach Us That Our True Destiny Is Not To Be Ministered Unto But To Minister To Ourselves And To Our Fellow Men.

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

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.

Above All, Try Something

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.

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

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

Organized Labor

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

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.

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

Presidents Are Selected, Not Elected.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Freedom To Learn Is The First Necessity Of Guaranteeing That Man Himself Shall Be Self Reliant Enough To Be Free.

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

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

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

...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.

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.

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

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 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.

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

It Is A Good Thing To Demand Liberty For Ourselves And For Those Who Agree With Us, But It Is A Better Thing And A Rarer Thing To Give Liberty To Others Who Do Not Agree With Us.

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.

Frankly, I Do Not Like The Idea Of Conversations To Define The Term "unconditional Surrender."the German People Can Have Dinned Into Their Ears What I Said In My Christmas Eve Speech--in Effect, That We Have No Thought Of Destroying The German People And That We Want Them To Live Through The Generations Like Other European Peoples On Condition, Of Course, That They Get Rid Of Their Present Philosophy Of Conquest.

I Propose To Create A Civilian Conservation Corps To Be Used In Simple Work...more Important, However, Than The Material Gains Will Be The Moral And Spiritual Value Of Such Work.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

The Real Safeguard Of Democracy Is Education.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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

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

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

Collective Bargaining

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

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

I 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.

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 Best Customer Of American Industry Is The Well Paid Worker.

Working Conditions

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 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.

(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.

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

I Have A Terrific Headache.

Let Us Move Forward With Strong And Active Faith.

If Civilization Is To Survive, The Principles Of The Prince Of Peace Must Be Restored. Shattered Trust Between Nations Must Be Revived. Most Important Of All, The Will For Peace On The Part Of Peace-loving Nations Must Express Itself To The End That Nations That May Be Tempted To Violate Their Agreements And The Rights Of Others Will Desist From Such A Cause. There Must Be Positive Endeavors To Preserve Peace. America Hates War. America Hopes For Peace. Therefore, America Actively Engages In The Search For Peace.

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

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

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

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.

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

A Reactionary Is A Somnambulist Walking Backwards.

Walking Backwards

Never Underestimate A Man Who Overestimates Himself.

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

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