To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.

Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one’s own self.

Confidence… thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, and on unselfish performance. Without them, it cannot live.

When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck to crush him

Don’t put anybody in and don’t help anybody that is working for Huey Long or his crowd: that is a hundred percent

A radical is a man with both feet firmly planted in the air

Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are.

To reach a port, we must sail – sail, not tie at anchor – sail, not drift

The school is the last expenditure upon which America should be willing to economize.

Physical strength can never permanently withstand the impact of spiritual force

It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society.

Eternal truths will be neither true nor eternal unless they have fresh meaning for every new social situation

I’m not the smartest fellow in the world, but I can sure pick smart colleagues.

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

Never underestimate a man who overestimates himself.

I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made

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

No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it

Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.

There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith

If I went to work in a factory, the first thing I’d do is join a union

Do something. If it works, do more of it. If it doesn’t, do something else

Great power involves great responsibility

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.

The barrier to success is not something which exists in the real world; it is composed purely and simply of doubts about ability

Above all, try something.

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

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 outright, we can modify it as we go along

A good leader can’t get too far ahead of his followers.

It is a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead – and find no one there.

People acting together as a group can accomplish things which no individual acting alone could ever hope to bring about

Be sincere; be brief; be seated

We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future

Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, and on unselfish performance; without them, it cannot live.

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

When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot, and hang on

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 ablest man I ever met is the man you think you are.

We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way. The third is freedom from want. The fourth is freedom from fear.

We, and all others who believe in freedom as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees

he virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea.

Calm seas never made a good sailor.

The value of love will always be stronger than the value of hate. Any nation or group of nations which employs hatred eventually is torn to pieces by hatred

Self-interest is the enemy of all true affection

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.

Peace, like charity, begins at home

I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm

We can afford all that we need, but we cannot afford all that we want.

If you treat people right, they will treat you right—ninety percent of the time.

Take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly, and try another. But by all means, try something

The truth is found when men are free to pursue it.

There are as many opinions as there are experts

Labor Day symbolizes our determination to achieve economic freedom for the average man, which will give his political freedom reality.

Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.

If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships – the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace

Remember, you are just an extra in everyone else’s play.

Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort

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.

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

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.

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

Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights and keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose. To that high concept, there can be no end save victory.

So, 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.

Peace on earth, goodwill 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.

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

What America needs now is a drink

The overwhelming majority of Americans are possessed of two great qualities a sense of humor and a sense of proportion.

Peace, like war, can succeed only where there is a will to enforce it, and where there is available power to enforce it.

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

We are trying to construct a more inclusive society. We are going to make a country in which no one is left out.

They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate.

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!

I am neither bitter nor cynical, but I do wish there was less immaturity in political thinking.

I’ve never been unemployed. I’ve never been very fully employed either.

More than just an end to war, we want an end to the beginnings of all wars

In vain, these economic royalists 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.

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

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.

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

Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle.

Today we are faced with the preeminent fact that if civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships—the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together and work together in the same world, at peace

This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper.

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.

Freedom of speech…Freedom of worship…Freedom from want…Freedom from fear

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

Taxes are paid in the sweat of every man who labors

I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded…I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed…I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war.

We must be the great arsenal of democracy.

We must scrupulously guard the civil rights and civil liberties of all our citizens, whatever their background. We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization

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.

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 too little.

Among American citizens, there should be no forgotten men and no forgotten races

Men and nature must work hand in hand. The throwing out of balance of the resources of nature throws out of balance, also the lives of men

We have faith that future generations will know here, in the middle of the twentieth century, there came a time when men of goodwill found a way to unite, and produce, and fight to destroy the forces of ignorance, and intolerance, and slavery, and war.

I never forget that I live in a house owned by all the American people and that I have been given their trust

In our personal ambitions, we are individualists. But in our seeking for economic and political progress as a nation, we all go up, or else all go down as one people.

The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people

More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginning of all wars – yes, an end to this brutal, inhuman and thoroughly impractical method of settling the differences between governments

War is a contagion

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

I do not look upon these United States as a finished product. We are still in the making

A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward.

I am a Christian and a Democrat, that’s all

Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

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 only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the governmen

The United States Constitution has proved itself the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written

No group and no government can properly prescribe precisely what should constitute the body of knowledge with which true education is concerned

Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves, and the only way they could do this is by not voting

I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people

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.

If we can boondoggle ourselves out of this depression, that word is going to be enshrined in the hearts of the American people for years to come.

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