There can be no constitutional democracy in any community which denies to the individual his freedom to speak and worship as he wishes. Fireside Chat in the night before signing the Fair Labor Standards Act (1938)
No democracy can long survive which does not accept as fundamental to its very existence the recognition of the rights of its minorities.
In the face of great perils never before encountered, our strong purpose is to protect and to perpetuate the integrity of democracy.
We know it because democracy alone has constructed an unlimited civilization capable of infinite progress in the improvement of human life.
We know it because democracy alone, of all forms of government, enlists the full force of men's enlightened will.
But Lincoln also understood that after such a decision, a democracy should seek peace through a new unity. For a democracy can keep alive only if the settlement of old difficulties clears the ground and transfers energies to face new responsibilities. Never can it have as much ability and purpose as it needs in that striving; the end of battle does not end the infinity of those needs. That is why Lincoln — commander of a people as well as of an army — asked that his battle end "with malice toward none, with charity for all." Address at the dedication of the memorial on the Gettysburg battlefield (1938)