Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) was the 32nd president of the United States. Widely known by his initials, FDR, Roosevelt is one of the most admired leaders of the United States.
FDR led the United States during some of its most challenging times, both domestically and internationally. He is most renowned for his socio-economic policies to resolve the Great Depression, his decision to enter the war after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, and the eventual victory of the Allied forces in World War II.
FDR is the longest-serving president of the United States. He died three months into his fourth term in office—just weeks before the surrender of Germany in World War II. Time Magazine named Franklin Roosevelt as a runner-up (along with Mahatma Gandhi) to the Person of the Century recognition.
FDR was well-known for his warm-heartedness and humility. He triumphed over a physical disability—at age 39, he suffered a polio attack that practically paralyzed his legs and confined him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
FDR is also legendary for his collections of stamps, coins, medals, paintings, models of various artifacts, walking sticks, paintings and photographs of naval vessels, stuffed animals, etc. He was the first president to set up a Presidential Library.
FDR was married to Eleanor Roosevelt and was a distant cousin of Theodore Roosevelt, the 29th president of the United States.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Franklin D. Roosevelt
If I went to work in a factory the first thing I’d do is join a union.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Work
We are a nation of many nationalities, many races, many religionsbound together by a single unity, the unity of freedom and equality. Whoever seeks to set one nationality against another, seeks to degrade all nationalities. Whoever seeks to set one race against another seeks to enslave all races. Whoever seeks to set one religion against another, seeks to destroy all religion.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Prejudice
No political party has exclusive patent rights on prosperity.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Politics
Freedom to learn is the first necessity of guaranteeing that man himself shall be self-reliant enough to be free.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Remember you are just an extra in everyone else’s play.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Do something. If it works, do more of it. If it doesn’t, do something else.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Humankind, Action
They realize that in thirty-four months we have built up new instruments of public power. In the hands of a peoples Government this power is wholesome and proper. But in the hands of political puppets of an economic autocracy such power would provide shackles for the liberties of the people.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Economics
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.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Liberty
No democracy can long survive which does not accept as fundamental to its very existence the recognition of the rights of minorities.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike you, do not wait until he has struck before you crush him.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Action, Knowledge, Humankind, Simplicity
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.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Freedom, Security, Society
The only thing to fear is fear itself.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
There is among you the man who is not bound by party lines. You vote according to your common sense and your calm judgment after hearing each party set forth its program. To you I say that the strength of this independent thought is the great contribution of the American political system.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Politics
I am neither bitter nor cynical but I do wish there was less immaturity in political thinking.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Thinking
Be sincere; be brief; be seated.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Communication
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.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Progress, Giving, Abundance, Charity
The barrier between success is not something which exists in the real world: it is composed purely and simply of doubts about ability.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Belief
Any Government, like any family, can for a year spend a little more than it earns. But you and I know that a continuation of that habit means the poorhouse.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
The point in history at which we stand is full of promise and danger. The world will either move forward toward unity and widely shared prosperity – or it will move apart.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: History
Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Joy, Leaders, Effort, Work, Achievement, Happiness, Achieving
Perfectionism, no less than isolationism or imperialism or power politics, may obstruct the paths to international peace. Let us not forget that the retreat to isolationism a quarter of a century ago was started not by a direct attack against international cooperation but against the alleged imperfections of the peace.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Principles
We can’t always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Future, Youth
Industrial combination is not wrong in itself. The danger lies in taking government into partnership.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Government
It is the duty of the President to propose and it is the privilege of the Congress to dispose.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Government
It is a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead—and find no one there.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Leaders, Leadership
A radical is a man with both feet firmly planted — in the air. A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward. A reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards. A liberal is a man who uses his legs and his hands at the behest — at the command — of his head.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Conservatives, Politicians, Fanaticism, Politics
I believe in the inherent right of every citizen to employment at a living wage and I pledge my support to whatever measures I may deem necessary for inaugurating self-liquidating public works … to provide employment for all surplus labor at all times.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Work
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.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Topics: Poverty, Aid, Help, Assistance
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