“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
“The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.”
“A reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards.”
“This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.”
“A radical is a man with both feet firmly planted in the air.”
“Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.”
“If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.”
“Our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.”
“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.”
“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.”
“No democracy can long survive which does not accept as fundamental to its very existence the recognition of the rights of minorities.”
“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.”
“An election cannot give a country a firm sense of direction if it has two or more national parties which merely have different names, but are as alike in their principals and aims as two peas in the same pod.”
“In the future days which we seek to make secure, 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, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants — everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor — anywhere in the world. That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation.”
“War is a contagion.”
“There is no indispensable man.”
“Be sincere, be brief; be seated.”
“Peace, like charity, begins at home.”
“The truth is found when men are free to pursue it.”
“Never underestimate a man who overestimates himself.”
“The ablest man I ever met is the man you think you are.”
“The forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.”
“No political party has exclusive patent rights on prosperity.”
“When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.”
“I have no expectation of making a hit every time I come to bat.”
“never before have we had so little time in which to do so much.”
“I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.”
“More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginnings of all wars.”
“If I went to work in a factory the first thing I'd do is join a union.”
“Whoever seeks to set one race against another seeks to enslave all races.”