Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 - 1945), Franklin D Roosevelt in short, often referred to by his initials FDR, was a US politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945.

Wisdom & Quotes

• I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.

- Presidential nomination acceptance speech, 1932

• The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

- First Inaugural Address, 1933

• Peace, like charity, begins at home.

- August 14, 1936

• To some generations much is given. Of others much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.

- Second Presidential nomination acceptance speech, 1936

• Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society.

- speech, October 21, 1936

• The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.

- letter to state governments, February 26, 1937

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

- letter to the NAACP, June 25, 1938

• A radical is a man with both feet firmly planted in the air.

- radio speech, October 26, 1939

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

- radio speech, October 26, 1939

• A reactionary is a somnambulist walking backward.

- radio speech, October 26, 1939

• A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.

- radio speech, October 13, 1940

• We must be the great arsenal of democracy.

- radio speech, December 29, 1940

• A full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- speech, November 1, 1940

• We look forward to a world founded upon four essential freedoms (freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear).

- speech, January 6, 1941

• Physical strength can never permanently withstand the impact of spiritual force.

- speech, May 4, 1941

• Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

- speech to Congress

• He may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch.

- referring to Anastasio Somoza of Nicaragua, cited by William Pfaff in The New Yorker, May 27, 1985

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky