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Home  »  Respectfully Quoted  »  Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945)

Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.

 
NUMBER: 655
AUTHOR: Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945)
QUOTATION: In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want—which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world.
ATTRIBUTION: President FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, State of the Union message to the Congress, January 6, 1941.—The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1940, p. 672 (1941).

A plaque in the stairwell of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty is inscribed: “Liberty is the air America breathes…. In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential freedoms … freedom of speech and expression … freedom of worship … freedom from want … freedom from fear.”
SUBJECTS: Freedom