“True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.”

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

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

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.

No government can help the destinies of people who insist in putting sectional and class consciousness ahead of general weal.

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.

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

Calm seas never made a good sailor.

It is one of the characteristics of a free and democratic nation that it have free and independent labor unions.

The only sure 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 goverment.

Government cannot close its eyes to the pollution of waters, to the erosion of soil, to the slashing of forests any more than it can close its eyes to the need for slum clearance and schools.

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

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.

The fate of America cannot depend on any one man. The greatness of America is grounded in principles and not on any single personality.

The best customer of American industry is the well paid worker.

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.

Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.

As the fisherman depends upon the rivers, lakes and seas and the farmer upon the land for his existence, so does mankind in general depend upon the beauty of the world about him for his spiritual and emotional existence.

Nothing exists until it is measured.

The quality of place, the reaction to immediate contact with earth and growing things that have a fugal relationship with mountains and sky, is essential to the integrity of our existence on this planet.

If an American was condemned to confine his activity to his own affairs, he would be robbed of one half of his existence.

As long as anti-gay legislation exists in any state, I strongly believe big events such as the Final Four and Super Bowl should not be held in those states’ cities.

A photograph is not an accident – is a concept. It exists at, or before, the moment of exposure of the negative.

A big difference exists between trying to manipulate God to give us what we want and cooperating with God so He can give us what He wants.

What’s really funny about being National Youth Poet Laureate is that not everyone even knows it exists.