Franklin D. Roosevelt, (1882-1945), 32nd US President Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [1-22] of 22 Franklin D. Roosevelt quotesFranklin D. Roosevelt QuotesFranklin D. Roosevelt A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car, but if he has a university education he may steal the whole railroad.~ Franklin D. Roosevelt The saving grace of America lies in the fact that the overwhelming majority of Americans are possessed of two great qualities -- a sense of humor and a sense of proportion.~ Franklin D. Roosevelt We all know that books will burn -- yet we have the greater knowledge that books cannot be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can abolish memory...~ Franklin D. Roosevelt The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson. History depicts Andrew Jackson as the last truly honorable and incorruptible American president.~ Franklin D. Roosevelt Knowledge -- that is, education in its true sense -- is our best protection against unreasoning prejudice and panic-making fear, whether engendered by special interest, illiberal minorities, or panic-stricken leaders.~ Franklin D. Roosevelt In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happened, you can bet it was planned that way.~ Franklin D. Roosevelt All government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management.~ Franklin D. Roosevelt The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the government.~ Franklin D. Roosevelt The creed of our democracy is that liberty is acquired and kept by men and women who are strong and self-reliant, and possessed of such wisdom as God gives mankind -- men and women who are just, and understanding, and generous to others -- men and women who are capable of disciplining themselves. For they are the rulers and they must rule themselves.~ Franklin D. Roosevelt It is a good thing to demand liberty for ourselves and for those who agree with us, but it is a better thing and a rarer thing to give liberty to others who do not agree with us.~ Franklin D. Roosevelt If the fires of freedom and civil liberties burn low in other lands, they must be made brighter in our own. If in other lands the press and books and literature of all kinds are censored, we must redouble our efforts here to keep them free. If in other lands the eternal truths of the past are threatened by intolerance, we must provide a safe place for their perception.~ Franklin D. Roosevelt Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle.~ Franklin D. Roosevelt I do not believe in communism any more than you do, but there is nothing wrong with the communists in this country. Several of the best friends I have are Communists.~ Franklin D. Roosevelt I hope your committee will not permit doubts as to constitutionality, however reasonable, to block the suggested legislation.~ Franklin D. Roosevelt I am much interested and deeply impressed by what he has accomplished and by his evidenced honest purpose of restoring Italy and seeking to prevent general European trouble.~ Franklin D. Roosevelt [The commerce clause was written] in the horse-and-buggy age ... since that time … we have developed an entirely different philosophy. ... We are interdependent, we are tied in together. And the hope has been that we could, through a period of years, interpret the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution in the light of these new things that have come to the country. It has been our hope that under the interstate commerce clause we could recognize by legislation and by judicial decision that a harmful practice in one section of the country could be prevented on the theory that it was doing harm to another section of the country. That was why the Congress for a good many years, and most lawyers, have had the thought that in drafting legislation we could depend on an interpretation that would enlarge the constitutional meaning of interstate commerce to include not only those matters of direct interstate commerce, but also those matters which indirectly affect interstate commerce.~ Franklin D. Roosevelt Are we going to take the hands of the federal government completely off any effort to adjust the growing of national crops, and go right straight back to the old principle that every farmer is a lord of his own farm and can do anything he wants, raise anything, any old time, in any quantity, and sell any time he wants?~ Franklin D. Roosevelt Freedom to learn is the first necessity of guaranteeing that man himself shall be self-reliant enough to be free.~ Franklin D. Roosevelt I tell the American people solemnly that the United States will never survive as a happy and fertile oasis of liberty surrounded by a cruel desert of dictatorship.~ Franklin D. Roosevelt The truth is found when men are free to pursue it.~ Franklin D. Roosevelt True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence.~ Franklin D. Roosevelt We, and all others who believe in freedom as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.~ Franklin D. 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