Franklin D. Roosevelt
(1882-1945)

birthdate: January 30
birthplace:
Hyde Park, New York

QUOTES

Civil Rights
Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy, forget in time that men have died to win them.

Democracy
The liberty of democracy is not safe if people tolerate growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism.

Hope
"We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon."

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

Ecology
"A nation that destroys it's soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people."

There is nothing so American as our national parks. The scenery and wildlife are native. The fundamental idea behind the parks is native. The parks stand as the outward symbol of this great human principle.

The throwing out of balance of the resources of nature throws out of balance also the lives of men.

Fair Trade
No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level --I mean the wages of decent living.

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.

Freedom
In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression --everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way-- everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants --everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a worldwide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor --anywhere in the world. That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation.

Friendship
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.

Globalization
"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing."

"The peoples of many countries are being taxed to the point of poverty and starvation... to enable governments to engage in a mad race in armaments... 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 must be met by the concerted actions of the peoples of all nations."

Human Rights
Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them. 

Kindness
Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel in order to be tough.

Labor
It is one of the characteristics of a free and democratic nation that is have free and independent labor unions.

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.

Living a Life of Compassion
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."

Nothing To Fear
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

No More War
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.

Peace
"Peace, like charity, begins at home."

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.

"When peace has been broken anywhere, the peace of all countries is in danger."

Poverty
The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have enough; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."

Tolerance
"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."

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

 

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