"Democracy can thrive only when it enlists..." - Quote by Franklin D Roosevelt
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.
More by Franklin D Roosevelt
“Organized money hates me--and I welcome their hatred!”
“A government can be no better than the public opinion which sustains it.”
“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.”
More on Democracy
“The true friend of property, the true conservative, is he who insists that property shall be the servant and not the master of the commonwealth; who insists that the creature of man’s making shall be the servant and not the master of the man who made it. The citizens of the United States must effectively control the mighty commercial forces which they have called into being. There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains. To put an end to it will be neither a short nor an easy task, but it can be done.”
“I was elected because I believed in what we call "grassroots politics," politics from the bottom up, not the top down.”
“To make fun of an administration, to make fun of anything, Mark Twain said, is the last defense of democracy.”
More on Dignity
“I sold flowers. I didn't sell myself. Now you've made a lady of me I'm not fit to sell anything else.”
“Dignity, high station, or great riches, are in some sort necessary to old men, in order to keep the younger at a distance, who are otherwise too apt to insult them upon the score of their age.”
“An India prostrate at the feet of Europe can give no hope to humanity.”