F. D. Roosevelt Quotes

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

As regards the extraordinary prizes, the element of luck is the determining factor.

Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official.

I can do one of two things. I can be President of the United States or I can control Alice Roosevelt. (His 19-year-old daughter.) I cannot possibly do both.

Theodore Roosevelt's father wrote him, "I fear for your future. We cannot stand so corrupt a government for any great length of time.

It is never worth while to absolutely exhaust one's self or to take big chances unless for an adequate object.

Now and then I am asked as to ‘what books a statesman should read, ’ and my answer is, poetry and novels – including short stories under the head of novels.

Do what you can with what you have where you are.

Life has got to be lived - that's all there is to it. At seventy I would say the advantage is that you take life more calmly. You know that 'this too shall pass!'

The worst of all fears is the fear of living.

We demand that big business give people a square deal in return we must insist that when anyone engaged in big business honesdy endeavors to do right he shall himself be given a square deal.

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

Character building begins in our infancy and continues until death.

When you have decided what you believe what you feel must be done have the courage to stand alone and be counted.

Somehow we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.

The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything.

Do not be afraid of mistakes providing you do not make the same one twice.

So 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.

Friendship with oneself is all-important because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else.

For it isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it.

If we want a free and peaceful world if we want to make the deserts bloom and man grow to greater dignity as a human being-we can do it.

When you cease to make a contribution you begin to die.

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.

Life has got to be lived-that's all that there is to it.

When you cease to make a contribution you begin to die.

I wish to preach not the doctrine of ignoble ease but the doctrine of the strenuous life.

When you get to the end of your rope tie a knot in it and hang on.

It isn't enough to talk about peace one must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it one must work at it.

Peace like charity begins at home.

I pledge you I 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 courage. This is a call to arms.

My hat's in the ring. The fight is one and I'm stripped to the buff.

This I know. This I believe with all my heart. If we want a free and peaceful world if we want to make the deserts bloom and man grow to greater dignity as a human being- we can do it!

This I know. This I believe with all my heart. If we want a free and peaceful world if we want to make the deserts bloom and man grow to greater dignity as a human being-we can do it!

Pray not for lighter burdens but for stronger backs.

Remember always that you have not only the right to be an individual you have an obligation to be one.

Criticism ... makes very little dent upon me unless I think there is some real justification and something should be done.

It is impossible to win the great prizes of life without running risks.

I think somehow we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.

I care not what others think of what I do but I care very much about what I think of what I do. That is character!

I'm glad I never feel important it does complicate life.

More people are ruined by victory I imagine than by defeat.

In the long run we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.

I feel like a Bull Moose.

You gain strength courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.... You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do provided he keeps doing them until he gets a record of successful experiences behind him.

You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with the best you have to give.

I think at a child's birth if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift that gift should be curiosity.

Nine-tenths of wisdom consists in being wise in time.

I am only an average man but by George I work harder at it than the average man.

The only time you really live fully is from thirty to sixty. The young are slaves to dreams the old servants of regrets. Only the middle-aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits.