Franklin D. Roosevelt Self Quotations

Self-interest is the enemy of all true affection.

The virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea.

We have always known that heedless self interest was bad morals, we now know that it is bad economics.

The hopes of the Republic cannot forever tolerate either undeserved poverty or self-serving wealth.

The ablest man I ever met is the man you think you are.

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

Freedom to learn is the first necessity of guaranteeing that man himself shall be self reliant enough to be free.

A serf-supporting and self-respecting democracy can plead no justification for the existence of child labor, no economic reason for chiseling workers' wages or stretching workers' hours.

We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics. Out of the collapse of a prosperity whose builders boasted their practicality has come the conviction that in the long run economic morality pays.

To a great extent the achievements of invention, of mechanical and of artistic creation, must of necessity, and rightly, be individual rather than governmental. It is the self-reliant pioneer in every enterprise who beats the path along which American civilization has marched. Such individual effort is the glory of America.

Self-help and self-control are the essence of the American tradition.

The creed of our democracy is that liberty is acquired and kept by men and women who are strong and self-reliant, and possessed of such wisdom as God gives mankind - men and women who are just, and understanding, and generous to others - men and women who are capable of disciplining themselves. For they are the rulers and they must rule themselves.