Inspirational Quotations by Franklin D. Roosevelt

If you treat people right they will treat you right — ninety percent of the time.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

Freedom to learn is the first necessity of guaranteeing that man himself shall be self-reliant enough to be free.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

If the Nation is living within its income, its credit is good. If, in some crises, it lives beyond its income for a year or two, it can usually borrow temporarily at reasonable rates. But if, like a spendthrift, it throws discretion to the winds, and is willing to make no sacrifice at all in spending; if it extends its taxing to the limit of the peoples power to pay and continues to pile up deficits, then it is on the road to bankruptcy.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

There are as many opinions as there are experts.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

Be sincere. Be brief. Be Seated.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

Our national debt after all is an internal debt owed not only by the Nation but to the Nation. If our children have to pay interest on it they will pay that interest to themselves. A reasonable internal debt will not impoverish our children or put the Nation into bankruptcy.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

There is no indispensable man.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

I do not believe in communism any more than you do but there is nothing wrong with the Communists in this country; several of the best friends I have got are Communists.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

In time of this grave national danger, when all excess income should go to win the war, no American citizen ought to have a net income, after he has paid his taxes, of more than $25,000 a year.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

The Presidency is not merely an administrative office. Thats the least of it. It is more than an engineering job, efficient or inefficient. It is pre-eminently a place of moral leadership. All our great Presidents were leaders of thought at times when certain historic ideas in the life of the nation had to be clarified.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

On this tenth day of June, 1940, the hand that held the dagger has struck it into the back of its neighbor.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

Too often in recent history liberal governments have been wrecked on rocks of loose fiscal policy.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

The first theory is that if we make the rich richer, somehow they will let a part of their prosperity trickle down to the rest of us. The second theory was the theory that if we make the average of mankind comfortable and secure, their prosperity will rise upward through the ranks.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

Any Government, like any family, can for a year spend a little more than it earns. But you and I know that a continuation of that habit means the poorhouse.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

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.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

They (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.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

Peace, like charity, begins at home.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

We have here a human as well as an economic problem. When humane considerations are concerned, Americans give them precedence. The lessons of history, confirmed by the evidence immediately before me, show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fibre. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

If the fires of freedom and civil liberties burn low in other lands, they must be made brighter in our own. If in other lands the press and books and literature of all kinds are censored, we must redouble our efforts here to keep them free. If in other lands the eternal truths of the past are threatened by intolerance we must provide a safe place for their perpetuation.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

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 his hands at the behest — at the command — of his head.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Progress

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.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

Men are not prisoners of fate, but prisoners of their own minds.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

Remember you are just an extra in everyone else’s play.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

Those of you who have been there Haiti know it is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. It has everything. It has everything above the ground, and everything under the ground. It is an amazing place. I strongly recommend that whenever you get a chance, if you haven’t been there, that you go to Haiti. I think it was a certain Queen of England who said that after her death Calais would be found written on her heart. When I die, I think that Haiti is going to be written on my heart.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

The truth is found when men are free to pursue it.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Truth

Happiness…
it lies in the joy of achievement,
in the thrill of creative effort.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

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.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

We have always held hope, the belief, the conviction that
there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike you, do not wait until he has struck before you crush him.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Action, Simplicity

We may make mistakes—but they must never be mistakes which result from faintness of heart or abandonment of moral principles.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Mistakes, Risk

When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Persistence, Endurance, Perseverance, Resolve

I hope your committee will not permit doubts as to constitutionality, however reasonable, to block the suggested legislation.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

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.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy, forget in time that men have died to win them.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

Is the United States going to decide, are the people of this country going to decide that their Federal Government shall in the future have no right under any implied power or any court-approved power to enter into a solution of a national economic problem, but that that national economic problem must be decided only by the States? We thought we were solving it, and now it has been thrown right straight in our faces. We have been relegated to the horse-and-buggy definition of interstate commerce.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

The frontier of America is on the Rhine.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

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.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

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 little.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

We can’t always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

Do what you feel in your heart to be right — for you’ll be criticized anyway.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

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.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt

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• William McKinley American Head of State
• Richard Nixon American Head of State
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