Quotes from Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

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...everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear... anywhere in the world.

I have no expectation of making a hit every time I come to bat.

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

When a country is at war we want Congressmen, regardless of party, to back up the government of the United States.

Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die. And it is youth who must inherit the tribulation, the sorrow and the triumphs that are the aftermath of war.

I have seen war ... I hate war.

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.

I've fired my last shot. I think I should have another round in my belt.

War is young men dying and old men talking

The barrier to success is not something which exists in the real world; it is composed purely and simply of doubts about ability.

A program whose basic thesis is, not that the system of free enterprise for profit has failed in this generation, but that it has not yet been tried!

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

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.

Never underestimate a man who overestimates himself.

In these days of difficulty, we Americans everywhere must and shall choose the path of social justice…, the path of faith, the path of hope, and the path of love toward our fellow man.

No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it. There can be no appeasement with ruthlessness. There can be no reasoning with an incendiary bomb.

Among American citizens, there should be no forgotten men and no forgotten races.

The fate of America cannot depend on any one man. The greatness of America is grounded in principles and not on any single personality.

The ablest man I ever met is the man you think you are.

The true conservative is the man who has a real concern for injustices and takes thought against the day of reckoning.

Not only our future economic soundness but the very soundness of our democratic institutions depends on the determination of our government to give employment to idle men.

Necessitous men are not free men.

Every man has a right to life, and this means that he has also a right to make a comfortable living.