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

What America needs now is a drink.

Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle.

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.

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

Freedom of conscience, of education, of speech, of assembly are among the very fundamentals of democracy and all of them would be nullified should freedom of the press ever be successfully challenged.

The Democratic Party will live and continue to receive the support of the majority of Americans just so long as it remains a liberal party.

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

The principle on which this country was founded and by which it has always been governed is that Americanism is a matter of the mind and heart; Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry.

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

Be sincere; be brief; be seated.

The loneliest feeling in the world is when you think you are leading the parade and turn to find that no one is following you. No president who badly misguesses public opinion will last very long.

Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them.

Books can not be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can abolish memory… In this war, we know, books are weapons. And it is a part of your dedication always to make them weapons for man’s freedom.

Against naked force the only possible defense is naked force. The aggressor makes the rules for such a war; the defenders have no alternative but matching destruction with more destruction, slaughter with greater slaughter.

All of our people all over the country-except the pure-blooded Indians-are immigrants or descendants of immigrants, including even those who came over here on the Mayflower.

The presidency is not merely an administrative office. It is pre-eminently a place of moral leadership.