Franklin D. Roosevelt Quotes

“Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are.”

“The gains in education are never really lost. Books may be burned and cities sacked, but truth, like the yearning for freedom, lives in the hearts of humble men.”

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

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

“Do the best you can do and wait the results in peace.”

“We may make mistakes-but they must never be mistakes which result from faintness of heart or abandonment of moral principle.”

“In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike.”

“Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.”

“A good leader can't get too far ahead of his followers.”

“The loneliest feeling in the world is when you think you are leading the parade and turn to find that no one is following you. No president who badly misguesses public opinion will last very long.”

“It is a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead - and find no one there.”

“Our government is based on the belief that a people can be both strong and free, that civilized men need no restraint but that imposed by themselves against abuse of freedom.”

“Let us not confuse objectives with methods. Too many so-called leaders of the nation fail to see the forest because of the trees. Too many of them fail to recognize the vital necessity of planning for definite objectives. True leadership calls for the setting forth of the objectives and the rallying of public opinion in support of these objectives.”

“Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them.”

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

“If you treat people right they will treat you right... ninety percent of the time.”

“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.”

“Do not confuse objectives with methods. When the nation becomes substantially united in favor of planning the broad objectives of civilization, then true leadership must unite thought behind definite methods.”

“Confidence... thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live.”

“It is better to swallow words than to have to eat them later.”

“Self-help and self-control are the essence of the American tradition.”

“If we can boondoggle ourselves out of this depression, that word is going to be enshrined in the hearts of the American people for years to come.”

“Democracy can thrive only when it enlists the devotion of those whom Lincoln called the common people. Democracy can hold that devotion only when it adequately respects their dignity by so ordering society as to assure to the masses of men and women reasonable security and hope for themselves and for their children.”

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

“We are trying to construct a more inclusive society. We are going to make a country in which no one is left out.”