Top 350 Franklin D. Roosevelt Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Calm seas never made a good sailor.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: Quotes About the Sea

2. “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: Courage Quotes

3. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: Courage Quotes, Famous Quotes, Short Inspiring Quotes, Motivational Monday Quotes, Important Quotes

4. “We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: Education Quotes, Preparation Quotes, Graduation Quotes, Different Quotes, Quotes About Kids

5. “When you get to the end of your rope. Tie a knot and hang on.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: Perseverance Quotes, Life is Hard Quotes, Encouragement Quotes, Struggle Quotes, Survival Quotes

6. “Great power involves great responsibility.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

7. “There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: Moving On Quotes, Different Quotes, Progress Quotes

8. “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: Success Quotes, Confidence Quotes, Interesting Quotes, Positivity Quotes, Empowering Quotes

9. “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.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: Quotes About Humanity, Caring Quotes, Progress Quotes, Justice Quotes, Government Quotes

10. “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.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: Failure Quotes, Experience Quotes, Resilience Quotes, Quotes for Better Decisions, Risk-Taking Quotes

11. “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: Government Quotes, Democracy Quotes

12. “Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: Positive Motivation Quotes, Happy Quotes, Positive Work Quotes, Being Happy Quotes, Work Hard Quotes

13. “Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: Willpower Quotes, Personal Responsibility Quotes

14. “Real estate cannot be lost or stolen, nor can it be carried away. Purchased with common sense, paid for in full, and managed with reasonable care, it is about the safest investment in the world.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: Real Quotes

15. “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.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: Kindness Quotes, Freedom Quotes, Character Quotes, Respect Quotes

16. “I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

17. “The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: Environment Quotes

18. “Above all, try something.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: Boldness Quotes, New Beginnings Quotes

19. “People acting together as a group can accomplish things which no individual acting alone could ever hope to bring about.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: Make A Difference Quotes, Collaboration Quotes, Quotes About Acting

20. “Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

21. “Let us move forward with strong and active faith.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: Strong Quotes, Moving Forward Quotes

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

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

23. “Labor Day symbolizes our determination to achieve an economic freedom for the average man which will give his political freedom reality.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: Labor Day Quotes

24. “First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: Overcoming Fear Quotes, Challenges Quotes, History Quotes, Government Quotes

25. “Never before have we had so little time in which to do so much.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

26. “Be sincere; be brief; be seated.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: Patriotic Quotes

27. “We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: Carpe Diem Quotes

28. “Presidents are selected, not elected.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

29. “The barrier to success is not something which exists in the real world; it is composed purely and simply of doubts about ability.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: Real Quotes

30. “December 7, 1941. A date which will live in infamy.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

31. “I’m not the smartest fellow in the world, but I can sure pick smart colleagues.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

32. “A smooth sea never a skilled sailor made.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

33. “Men and nature must work hand in hand. The throwing out of balance of the resources of nature throws out of balance also the lives of men.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

34. “Go for the moon. If you don’t get it, you’ll still be heading for a star. Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of the creative effort.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

35. “To reach a port, we must sail – sail, not tie at anchor – sail, not drift.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

36. “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.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

37. “Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

38. “In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: 4th Of July Quotes

39. “A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: Patriotic Quotes

40. “Never underestimate a man who overestimates himself.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

41. “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.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

42. “I am a Christian and a Democrat, that’s all.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

43. “Do the best you can do and wait the results in peace.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

44. “We must especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American Eagle in order to feather their own nests.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

45. “The motto of war is: “Let the strong survive; let the weak die.” The motto of peace is: “Let the strong help the weak to survive.””

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: Strong Quotes

46. “That is the spiral galaxy in Andromeda. It is as large as our Milky Way. It is one of a hundred million galaxies. It consists of one hundred billion suns. Now I think we are small enough.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

47. “Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

48. “I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

49. “No country, however rich, can afford the waste of its human resources. Demoralization caused by vast unemployment is our greatest extravagance. Morally, it is the greatest menace to our social order.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Featured in: Country Quotes

50. “Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt