"Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay.
That is the only American principle."
"A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however,
has never learned how to walk forward."
"A nation that destroys it's soils destroys itself. Forests are
the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people."
"Are you laboring under the impression that I read these memoranda of yours?
I can't even lift them."
"Be sincere; be brief; be seated."
"Confidence... thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations,
on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live."
"Favor comes because for a brief moment in the great space of human change
and progress some general human purpose finds in him a satisfactory embodiment."
"Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort."
"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."
"I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made."
"I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people."
"I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not
enough the bad luck of the early worm."
"I'm not the smartest fellow in the world, but I can sure pick smart colleagues."
"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."
"If you treat people right they will treat you right... ninety percent of the time."
"In our seeking for economic and political progress, we all go up - or else we all go down."
"In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way."
"It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly
than an empty stomach."
"It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and
try another. But above all, try something."
"It isn't sufficient just to want - you've got to ask yourself what you are going
to do to get the things you want."
"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."
"More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginning of all wars - yes, an end
to this brutal, inhuman and thoroughly impractical method of settling the differences
between governments."
"One thing is sure. We have to do something. We have to do the best we know how at
the moment... ; If it doesn't turn out right, we can modify it as we go along."
"Put two or three men in positions of conflicting authority. This will force them
to work at loggerheads, allowing you to be the ultimate arbiter."
"Remember you are just an extra in everyone else's play."
"Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are."
"Self-interest is the enemy of all true affection."
"Selfishness is the only real atheism; aspiration, unselfishness, the only real religion."
"Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch."
"Take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly, and try another. But by all means, try something."
"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point
where it comes strong than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is
fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power."
"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 only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
"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."
"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."
"The virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea."
"There are as many opinions as there are experts."
"There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still."
"There is nothing I love as much as a good fight."
"There is nothing to fear but fear itself."
"To reach a port, we must sail - sail, not tie at anchor - sail, not drift."
"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."
"We continue to recognize the greater ability of some to earn more than others.
But we do assert that the ambition of the individual to obtain for him a proper
security is an ambition to be preferred to the appetite for great wealth and great power."
"We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we now know that it is bad economics."
"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."
