Franklin Delano Roosevelt, commonly known as FDR, was born on January 30, 1882, in Hyde Park, New York. He was an American statesman and the 32nd President of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. FDR is widely regarded as one of the most influential and consequential presidents in American history and Franklin D. Roosevelt Quotes reflects same.
Roosevelt came from a wealthy and prominent family. He attended prestigious schools such as Groton and Harvard University, where he studied law. However, his true passion lay in public service and politics. Inspired by his distant cousin Theodore Roosevelt, FDR entered politics in the early 1900s.
He quickly rose through the ranks, serving as a member of the New York State Senate and later as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson. Roosevelt’s dynamic leadership during World War I earned him praise and solidified his reputation as a capable administrator.
In 1921, tragedy struck when FDR contracted polio, a disease that left him permanently paralyzed from the waist down. Despite this immense personal setback, Roosevelt refused to let it define him. He undertook a remarkable physical rehabilitation program and developed the use of leg braces and a wheelchair to regain mobility.
Roosevelt’s resilience and determination were reflected in his political career. In 1932, during the depths of the Great Depression, he was elected as President of the United States. He implemented a series of bold reforms known as the New Deal to alleviate the economic crisis, focusing on relief, recovery, and reform. His policies included creating jobs through public works programs, establishing Social Security, and regulating the financial system.
FDR’s presidency extended beyond the economic realm. He guided the nation through the turbulent years of World War II, providing strong leadership and mobilizing the American people. His fireside chats, radio broadcasts in which he reassured and informed the public, became legendary.
Tragically, Franklin D. Roosevelt passed away on April 12, 1945, just months before the end of World War II. His death marked the end of an era, leaving a void in American politics and governance. However, his legacy lives on. FDR’s transformative policies and his ability to connect with the American people during times of crisis have made him an iconic figure in U.S. history. His leadership and compassion continue to inspire generations of leaders to strive for progress, social justice, and the welfare of all citizens.
These Franklin D. Roosevelt quotes cover everything from politics and Americans to human character and witty one-liners about life.
Famous Franklin D. Roosevelt Quotes
1. “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.”
2. “Calm seas never made a good sailor.”
3. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
4. “We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.”
5. “When you get to the end of your rope. Tie a knot and hang on.”
6. “Great power involves great responsibility.”
7. “There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.”
8. “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.”
9. “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.”
10. “Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.”
11. “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.”
12. “Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.”
13. “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.”
14. “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.”
15. “I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.”
16. “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.”
17. “The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.”
18. “Above all, try something.”
19. “People acting together as a group can accomplish things which no individual acting alone could ever hope to bring about.”
20. “Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.”
21. “In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.”
22. “Let us move forward with strong and active faith.”
23. “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.”
24. “Never before have we had so little time in which to do so much.”
25. “Labor Day symbolizes our determination to achieve an economic freedom for the average man which will give his political freedom reality.”
26. “Be sincere; be brief; be seated.”
27. “We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.”
28. “The barrier to success is not something which exists in the real world; it is composed purely and simply of doubts about ability.”
29. “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.”
30. “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.”
31. “December 7, 1941. A date which will live in infamy.”
32. “In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.”
33. “I’m not the smartest fellow in the world, but I can sure pick smart colleagues.”
34. “A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.”
35. “To reach a port, we must sail – sail, not tie at anchor – sail, not drift.”
36. “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.”
37. “Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are.”
38. “Presidents are selected, not elected.”
39. “Never underestimate a man who overestimates himself.”
40. “That is the spiral galaxy in Andromeda. It is as large as our Milky Way. It is one of a hundred million galaxies. It consists of one hundred billion suns. Now I think we are small enough.”
41. “No country, however rich, can afford the waste of its human resources. Demoralization caused by vast unemployment is our greatest extravagance. Morally, it is the greatest menace to our social order.”
42. “I am a Christian and a Democrat, that’s all.”
43. “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.”
44. “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.”
45. “I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.”
46. “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.”
47. “Necessitous men are not free men.”
48. “Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them.”
49. “Do the best you can do and wait the results in peace.”
50. “If you have spent two years in bed trying to wiggle your big toe, everything else seems easy.”
51. “When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck to crush him.”
52. “We must especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American Eagle in order to feather their own nests.”
53. “The real safeguard of democracy is education.”
54. “No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it.”
55. “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.”
56. “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.”
57. “No democracy can long survive which does not accept as fundamental to its very existence the recognition of the rights of minorities.”
58. “When peace has been broken anywhere, the peace of all countries is in danger.”
59. “Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.”
60. “Freedom of conscience, of education, of speech, of assembly are among the very fundamentals of democracy and all of them would be nullified should freedom of the press ever be successfully challenged.”
61. “The principle on which this country was founded and by which it has always been governed is that Americanism is a matter of the mind and heart; Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry.”
62. “We have nothing to fear but missing our massage appointment time.”
63. “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.”
64. “Peace, like war, can succeed only where there is a will to enforce it, and where there is available power to enforce it.”
65. “Tell that to the Marines!”
66. “I have loved to the point of madness; that which is called madness, that which to me, is the only sensible way to love.”
67. “Do something. If it works, do more of it. If it doesn’t, do something else.”
68. “Peace, like charity, begins at home.”
69. “We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace – business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.”
70. “Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society.”
71. “Self-interest is the enemy of all true affection.”
72. “The first twelve years are the hardest.”
73. “To carry adequate life insurance is a moral obligation incumbent upon the great majority of citizens.”
74. “The forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.”
75. “I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm.”
76. “We know now that government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob.”
77. “Happiness is not merely money, which is fun for effort and achievement.”
78. “Every time an artist dies, part of the vision of mankind passes with him.”
79. “Inquisitiveness is the most useful talent.”
80. “They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate.”
81. “Yesterday, December seventh, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. We will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God.”
82. “The virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea.”
83. “Democracy, the practice of self-government, is a covenant among free men to respect the rights and liberties of their fellows.”
84. “We are a nation of many nationalities, many races, many religions-bound together by a single unity, the unity of freedom and equality. Whoever seeks to set one nationality against another, seeks to degrade all nationalities.”
85. “I never forget that I live in a house owned by all the American people and that I have been given their trust.”
86. “It is a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead – and find no one there.”
87. “We may make mistakes-but they must never be mistakes which result from faintness of heart or abandonment of moral principle.”
88. “Remember you are just an extra in everyone else’s play.”
89. “The ablest man I ever met is the man you think you are.”
90. “Change is like fire- if uncontrolled, it will consume us.”
91. “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.”
92. “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…”
93. “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.”
94. “Democracy alone, of all forms of government, enlists the full force of men’s enlightened will.”
95. “A good leader can’t get too far ahead of his followers.”
96. “Hitler built a fortress around Europe, but he forgot to put a roof on it.”
97. “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.”
98. “There is nothing to fear but fear itself.”
99. “I consider it a public duty to answer falsifications with facts. I will not pretend that I find this an unpleasant duty. I am an old campaigner, and I love a good fight.”
100. “The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation .”