Quotes from FDR, 32nd President of the United States

Everyone always quotes the founding fathers or Reagan, etc.....rarely do I see people quote FDR....who not only led us through the Great Depression...but also WWII. Thought I would share some of my favorites. Seems as if time is trying to make us forget about him...and he only seems to be brought up in the media in regards to WWII....that's it. The man was no friend to the wealthy and he often was accused of betraying his own class.

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“No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country”

“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it comes stronger than their democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism - ownership of government by an individual by a group ”

"In our personal ambitions we are individualists. But in our seeking for economic and political progress as a nation, we all go up or else all go down as one people."

"But while they prate of economic laws, men and women are starving. We must lay hold of the fact that economic laws are not made by nature. They are made by human beings."

"I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made."

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

"Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country."

"Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds."

"Selfishness is the only real atheism; aspiration, unselfishness, the only real religion."

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today."

"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 goverment."

"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 little."

"True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made."

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

www.brainyquote.com...

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“We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace-business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs.

We know that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hatred for me - and I welcome their hatred."



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“The truth is found when men are free to pursue it.”

“Whoever seeks to set one race against another seeks to enslave all races”

“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.”

“Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth”

“Today we are faced with the preeminent fact that, if civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world, at peace”

“The value of love will always be stronger than the value of hate.. Any nation or group of nations which employs hatred eventually is torn to pieces by hatred...”

“We cannot always build the future of our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.”

“No democracy can long survive which does not accept as fundamental to its very existence the recognition of the rights of minorities.”

“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 principles and aims as two peas in the same pod”

“The hopes of the Republic cannot forever tolerate either undeserved poverty or self-serving wealth.”

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

“The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profits”

“No political party has exclusive patent rights on prosperity.”

“The civilization of the past 100 years, with its startling industrial changes, has tended more and more to make life insecure. Young people have come to wonder what would be their lot when they came to old age. The man with a job has wondered how long the job would last.”

“Concentration of wealth and power has been built upon other people's money, other people's business, other people's labor. Under this concentration, independent business … has been a menace to … American society.”

“These unhappy times call for the building of plans that build from the bottom up and not from the top down, that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.”

“Never underestimate a man who overestimates himself.”

thinkexist.com...

"True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made."

Seems TPTB are well aware of this one.

reply to post by Maluhia

“We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace-business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.

This could easily be written by someone today....it's amazing really. History repeated itself...once again. Will an FDR like figure also repeat? Obama is no FDR...that's for sure. FDR had balls. Was he perfect? Nope...but then again who is?

reply to post by David9176


definitely a smart man with some good quotes

its too bad that he sold out his country to bankers and outlawed the use of gold as valid currency

reply to post by trust_no_one

its too bad that he sold out his country to bankers and outlawed the use of gold as valid currency

Maybe so...but also during this time the strongest middle class in world history existed. We had a standard of living unmatched by any other nation....now it's all falling apart as the economic model that was created by Roosevelt has been broken...and has been broken for well over 30 years.

Money no longer flows like it used to. Money used to always get cycled down to the bottom again. That no longer is happening....which is why more people need government assistance to stay afloat...even when holding a job. Ironically, the only thing keeping them afloat is many of Roosevelt's reforms.

Something has to give soon....either the wealthy are going to have to start paying more taxes....or the middle class will continue it's 30 year decline and we will back to where we were before the great depression. 2 classes. Rich and poor.

reply to post by David9176

Will an FDR like figure also repeat?

I'd like to believe it, but I don't have a lot of confidence. The world today is too different - too manipulated by the big business media. And the populace buys into it hook line and sinker. Ron Paul, one of the few sane people in government today, is being ignored and cheated. Maybe there is someone more charismatic and able to cut through the bs that will ride in like a white knight -- I'm still hoping -- any ideas?

FYI - here's a link to quotes from the equally interesting Eleanor.
www.quotationspage.com...

Cool quotes

reply to post by Maluhia

I'd like to believe it, but I don't have a lot of confidence. The world today is too different - too manipulated by the big business media.

I believe many thought Obama was that guy. It's clear he is not.....he is however better than the alternatives imo.

I will definitely check out the Eleanor's quotes. She fought heavily for the poor and was behind many of FDR's policies.

Here are some videos for all "1 peoples" that flagged the thread.

- FDR responds with good humor at Republican attempts to lay blame for the Great Depression at his doorstep. The president however takes exception to those who would assail his scotch terrier Fala.


-Famous WWII speech, the last time the United States actually DECLARED WAR. "The only thing we have to fear is...fear itself." (I think some people here really need to take that quote to heart...so many driven by fear.)


-FDR's second bill of rights

No President has done more for the working man in US History than FDR. Republicans have spent every day since his passing trying to destroy everything created by and associated with him.

Here's a good one:

"If the Supreme Court's membership could be increased to twelve, without too much trouble, perhaps the Constitution would be found to be quite elastic."

This was his "court packing" suggestion. The SCOTUS found, quite rightly, that many of the provisions of FDR's New Deal plan were wholly unconstitutional. FDR didn't like that, so he threw a wall-eyed fit and threatened to pack the court with justices that were more sympathetic to tyrannical dictatorships.

"Elastic" indeed.

/TOA