F. D. Roosevelt Quotes

The only joy in this hard life is serving others.

I never met Mahatma Gandhi, but, I think everyone felt they knew him even if they hadn't met him.

I used to tell my husband that, if he could make me 'understand' something, it would be clear to all the other people in the country.

To undo a mistake is always harder than not to create one originally but we seldom have the foresight. Therefore we have no choice but to try to correct our past mistakes.

Usefulness, whatever form it may take, is the price we should pay for the air we breathe and the food we eat and the privilege of being alive.

If someone betrays you once, it’s their fault; if they betray you twice, it’s your fault.

All wars eventually act as boomerangs and the victor suffers as much as the vanquished.

It is the purpose of the government to see that not only the legitimate interests of the few are protected but that the welfare and rights of the many are conserved.

The hopes of the Republic cannot forever tolerate either undeserved poverty or self-serving wealth.

I wish to see the Bible study as much a matter of course in the secular colleges as in the seminary.

Have convictions. Be friendly. Stick to your beliefs as they stick to theirs. Work as hard as they do.

There is not in all America a more dangerous trait than the deification of mere smartness unaccompanied by any sense of moral responsibility.

There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains.

Optimism is a good characteristic, but if carried to an excess, it becomes foolishness. We are prone to speak of the resources of this country as inexhaustible; this is not so.

The most important thing in any relationship is not what you get but what you give.... In any case, the giving of love is an education in itself.

The lack of power to take joy in outdoor nature is as real a misfortune as the lack of power to take joy in books

No man is defeated without until he has first been defeated within.

Success must include two things: the development of an individual to his utmost potentiality and a contribution of some kind to one's world.

It is true of the Nation, as of the individual, that the greatest doer must also be a great dreamer.

Aggressive fighting for the right is the noblest sport the world affords.

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

I can not believe that war is the best solution. No one won the last war, and no one will win the next war.

Actors are one family over the entire world.

My experience has been that work is almost the best way to pull oneself out of the depths.

One cannot bring up boys to be eagles and then expect them to be sparrows.

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

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

We wish peace, but we wish the peace of justice, the peace of righteousness. We wish it because we think it is right and not because we are afraid.

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.

What a man does for himself, dies with him. What a man does for his community lives long after he's gone.

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

Great power involves great responsibility

Avoid the base hypocrisy of condemning in one man what you pass over in silence when committed by another.

Taxes are paid in the sweat of every man who labors.

Sports is the very fiber of all we stand for. It keeps our spirits alive.

Once you've spent two years trying to wiggle one toe, everything is in proportion.

We know that there are chiselers. At the bottom of every case of criticism and obstruction we have found some selfish interest, some private axe to grind.

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.

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.

Inquisitiveness is the most useful talent.

Life is a great adventure…accept it in such a spirit.

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.

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, and to set free a suffering humanity.

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.

I feel most emphatically that we should not turn into shingles a tree which was old when the first Egyptian conqueror penetrated to the valley of the Euphrates.

Freedom to learn is the first necessity of guaranteeing that man himself shall be self reliant enough to be free.

The longer I live the more I think of the quality of fortitude... men who fall, pick themselves up and stumble on, fall again, and are trying to get back up when they die.

Democracy is not a static thing. It is an everlasting march.

The democratic aspiration is no mere recent phase in human history. It is human history.

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.