History proves that dictatorships do not grow out of strong and successful governments, but out of weak and helpless ones. If by democratic methods people get a government strong enough to protect them from fear and starvation, their democracy succeeds; but if they do not, they grow impatient. Therefore, 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 its government.
Franklin D. RooseveltI am perhaps being a bit facetious but if some of my good Baptist brethren in Georgia had done a little preaching from the pulpitagainst the K.K.K. in the '20s, I would have a little more genuine American respect for their Christianity!
Franklin D. RooseveltA conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward.
Franklin D. RooseveltWe know that equality of individual ability has never existed and never will, but we do insist that equality of opportunity still must be sought.
Franklin D. RooseveltIt is the purpose of the government to see that not only the legitimate interests of the few are protected but that the welfare and rights of the many are conserved.
Franklin D. RooseveltIn my Inaugural I laid down the simple proposition that nobody is going to starve in this country. It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By "business" I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level - I mean the wages of decent living.
Franklin D. Roosevelt