Government Quotes by Franklin D. Roosevelt

The first twelve years are the hardest.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

A government can be no better than the public opinion which sustains it.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Industrial combination is not wrong in itself. The danger lies in taking government into partnership.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

The American people want their government to act, and not merely to talk, whenever and wherever there is a threat to world…

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

When a country is at war we want Congressmen, regardless of party, to back up the government of the United States.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

In our democracy officers of the government are the servants, and never the masters of the people.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Research is one of the Nation's very greatest resources and the role of the Federal Government in supporting and stimulating it needs…

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Dealing with the State Department is like watching an elephant become pregnant.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

That, in essence is Fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any controlling private power.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

No business is above Government; and Government must be empowered to deal adequately with any business that tries to rise above Government.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

“It is the purpose of government to see that not only the legitimate interests of the few are protected but that the…

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

They realize that in thirty-four months we have built up new instruments of public power. In the hands of a peoples Government…

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

A wise Government seeks to provide the opportunity through which the best of individual achievement can be obtained, while at the same…

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob… [The organized moneyed people] are…

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it…

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

They (who) seek to establish systems of government based on the regimentation of all human beings by a handful of individual rulers.…

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

The future lies with those wise political leaders who realize that the great public is interested more in Government than in politics.…

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

“A Radical is a man with both feet firmly planted--in the air. A Conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs…

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

History proves that dictatorships do not grow out of strong and successful governments, but out of weak and helpless ones. If by…

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

The peoples of many countries are being taxed to the point of poverty and starvation... to enable governments to engage in a…

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Of course we will continue to work for cheaper electricity in the homes and on the farms of America; for better and…

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

This law represents a cornerstone in a structure which is being built but is by no means completed--a structure intended to lessen…

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

The royalists of the economic order have conceded that political freedom was the business of the government, but they have maintained that…

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the larger centers has owned…

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

[M]y conception of liberty does not permit an individual citizen or a group of citizens to commit acts of depredation against nature…

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Governments can err, Presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded…

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

“From the end of the World War twenty-one years ago, this country, like many others, went through a phase of having large…

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

“All agree that, the first responsibility for the alleviation of poverty and distress and for the care of the victims of the…

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service,

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

No group and no government can properly prescribe precisely what should constitute the body of knowledge with which true education is concerned.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

We want a Supreme Court which will do justice under the Constitution - not over it. In our courts we want a…

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Too often in recent history liberal governments have been wrecked on rocks of loose fiscal policy.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

The future lies with those wise political leaders who realize that the great public is interested more in government than in politics.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

For three long years I have been going up and down this country preaching that government . . . costs too much.…

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

The United States Constitution has proved itself the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

I want to preach a new doctrine. A complete separation of business and government.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

That, in its essence, is Fascism — ownership of Government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Democracy alone, of all forms of government, enlists the full force of men's enlightened will.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Democracy, the practice of self-government, is a covenant among free men to respect the rights and liberties of their fellows.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt