President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Articles
Historical Quotes
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
By Tom Kirvan
The ghastly nature of Halloween arrived two days early on October 29, 1929, otherwise known as “Black Tuesday.”
For investors, it was the day of the stock market crash, which helped precipitate the Great Depression, a global economic collapse that saw banks fail, unemployment skyrocket, and poverty engulf wide regions of the world.
It also altered the political course of America, eventually forcing the nation to consider having a social safety net via the New Deal programs championed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), who became the longest serving president in U.S. history, reigning from 1933-45.
The former governor of New York, Roosevelt was elected president in November 1932 to the first of four terms. Through his series of “Fireside Chats,” Roosevelt aimed to comfort a troubled nation and help restore faith in itself, asserting in his inaugural address that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
It would be perhaps his most enduring quote and would help steady a nation throughout World War II, which began for America on December 7, 1941 with the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. That was a “date which will live in infamy,” Roosevelt proclaimed before a joint session of Congress the following day. It also cemented his place in history as one of America’s greatest presidents before his death of a cerebral hemorrhage in April 1945 just months before the horrors of World War II would come to a merciful end.
As his health deteriorated and the war came to a close, FDR uttered the following words: “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.”
Such wisdom was an FDR trademark, as were these declarations from the 32nd President of the United States:
- “I ask you to judge me by the enemies I’ve made.”
- “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.”
- “The only true 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 government.”
- “Remember you are just an extra in everyone else’s play.”
- “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.”