Quotes from Franklin D. Roosevelt

Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.

Presidents are selected, not elected.

A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward.

Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.

It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

I want to preach a new doctrine. A complete separation of business and government.

I'm not the smartest fellow in the world, but I can sure pick smart colleagues.

The future lies with those wise political leaders who realize that the great public is interested more in government than in politics.

We must save the Constitution from the [Supreme] Court and the Court from itself.

I pledge you I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people. Let us all here assembled constitute ourselves prophets of a new order of competence and courage. This is a call to arms.

That, in its essence, is Fascism — ownership of Government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.

We defend and we build a way of life, not for America alone, but for all mankind.

Hitler built a fortress around Europe, but he forgot to put a roof on it.

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us.

As Americans, we go forward, in the service of our country, by the will of God.

In the field of world policy; I would dedicate this nation to the policy of the good neighbor.

New ideas can be good and bad, just the same as old ones.

In our democracy officers of the government are the servants, and never the masters of the people.

Those (who) seek to establish systems of Government based on the regimentation of all Human Beings by a handful of individual rulers...call this a new order. It is not new and it is not order.

No business is above Government; and Government must be empowered to deal adequately with any business that tries to rise above Government.

A government can be no better than the public opinion which sustains it.

No group and no government can properly prescribe precisely what should constitute the body of knowledge with which true education is concerned.

For three long years I have been going up and down this country preaching that government . . . costs too much. I shall not stop that preaching.