Franklin D. Roosevelt

"The highest duty of the writer is to hold up a mirror to his society."

"America has never forgotten the things it stood for in the beginning."

"The presidency is not a sorority."

"An ounce of ours is worth a pound of theirs."

"Democracy is not a static thing, it is an everlasting march."

"The problem of reducing our national debt is not a problem of mathematics alone."

"In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way."

"We are a nation that has a government—not the other way around."

"The mobilization of American resources is a practical demonstration of American strength."

"Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life."

"The test of progressive policies is not whether they have been tried, but whether they can work."

"I dream of a day when the worth of a person will be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

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

"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."

"A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself."

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

"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 too little."

"There is nothing to fear but fear itself—and sometimes taxes."

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."

"The only sure thing about the future is that it will astonish us."

"Happiness is not something that comes to you. It is something you create."

"Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely."

"The give-and-take of all successful relationships is based on equality and compromise."

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather an assessment that something else is more important than fear."

"Great power has come to those who thought in terms of everybody."

"We must be willing to fail and to appreciate the truth that often the greatest advances come from failed experiments."

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

"Civilization is not inherited; it has to be learned and earned by each generation anew."

"You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

"The art of politics is learning to walk with integrity."