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They realize that in thirty-four months we have built up new instruments of public power. In the hands of a people's Government this power is wholesome and proper. But in the hands of political puppets of an economic autocracy such power would provide shackles for the liberties of the people.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

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More quotes by Franklin D. Roosevelt

This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly.

We defend and we build a way of life, not for America alone, but for all mankind.

On this tenth day of June, 1940, the hand that held the dagger has struck it into the back of its neighbor.

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

Throughout the world, change is the order of the day.

State of the Union address (1935)

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The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.

John Adams A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787)

There is no governor anywhere; you are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped.

Robert Anton Wilson

When we see a great man desiring power instead of his real goal we soon recognize that he is sick, or more precisely that his attitude to his work is sick.

Martin Buber What is Man? (1938)

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

C. S. Lewis God in the Dock (1970)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Franklin D. Roosevelt (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.