Quotes

[on dreams] I believe in America because we have great dreams--and because we have the opportunity to make those dreams come true.

If I could write my own epitaph, and if I had to choose between saying, "Here lies an unimportant President" or, "Here lies one who contributed to saving freedom at a moment of great peril," I would prefer the latter.

Party lines are down. Nothing could make that clearer than the nomination by the Republicans of a liberal Democrat who changed his party affiliation because he found democracy in the Republican Party. [speaking of himself in speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination, August 17, 1940]

We must fight our way through not alone to the destruction of our enemies but to a new world idea. We must win the peace. To win that peace, three things seem to me to be necessary - first, we must plan now for peace on a global basis; second, the world must be free, economically and politically, for nations and for men that peace may exist in it; third, America must play an active, constructive part in freeing it and keeping its peace. [radio broadcast, October 26, 1942]