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To bring together the records of the past and to house them in buildings where they will be preserved for the use of men and women in the future, a Nation must believe in three things. It must believe in the past. It must believe in the future. It must, above all, believe in the capacity of its own people so to learn from the past that they can gain in judgment in creating their own future.

— 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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You can never plan the future by the past.

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Nothing is there to come, and nothing past,
But an eternal now does always last.

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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.