There comes a time in the affairs of men when they must prepare to defend not their homes alone but the tenets of faith and humanity on which their churches, their governments and their very foundations are set. The defense of religion, of democracy and of good faith among nations is all the same fight. To save one, we must now make up our minds to save all.
ATTRIBUTION:
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), U.S. president. FDR Speaks authorized edition of speeches, 1933-1945 (recordings of Franklin Roosevelt’s public addresses), side 5, annual message to Congress (Jan. 4, 1939), ed. Henry Steele Commager, Introduction by Eleanor Roosevelt, Washington Records, Inc. (1960).
This was part of FDR’s continuing campaign to arouse the Congress and the nation to the realities they faced in the danger to American civilization and to the democracies of the world posed by the Axis powers.
