
Speech at the Democratic Convention (28 August 2008) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/28/martin-luther-king-iii-dn_n_122258.html
Fireside Chat on National Security, Washington, D.C. (29 December 1940)
1940s
Speech at the Democratic Convention (28 August 2008) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/28/martin-luther-king-iii-dn_n_122258.html
“A great democracy has got to be progressive or it will soon cease to be great or a democracy.”
Source: New Nationalism Speech by Teddy Roosevelt
Presidential campaign (April 12, 2015 – 2016), Speech on fighting ISIS (November 20, 2015)
“If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice.”
To The New York Legal Aid Society (16 February 1951).
Extra-judicial writings
Address at the opening of the gubernatorial campaign, New York City (5 October 1898), reported in "The Duties of a Great Nation", Campaigns and Controversies, vol. 14 of The Works of Theodore Roosevelt, national ed. (1926), chapter 45, p. 291
1890s
Context: Greatness means strife for nation and man alike. A soft, easy life is not worth living, if it impairs the fibre of brain and heart and muscle. We must dare to be great; and we must realize that greatness is the fruit of toil and sacrifice and high courage... We are face to face with our destiny and we must meet it with a high and resolute courage. For us is the life of action, of strenuous performance of duty; let us live in the harness, striving mightily; let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out.
Essentials to Peace (1953)
Context: We must present democracy as a force holding within itself the seeds of unlimited progress by the human race. By our actions we should make it clear that such a democracy is a means to a better way of life, together with a better understanding among nations. Tyranny inevitably must retire before the tremendous moral strength of the gospel of freedom and self-respect for the individual, but we have to recognize that these democratic principles do not flourish on empty stomachs, and that people turn to false promises of dictators because they are hopeless and anything promises something better than the miserable existence that they endure. However, material assistance alone is not sufficient. The most important thing for the world today in my opinion is a spiritual regeneration which would reestablish a feeling of good faith among men generally. Discouraged people are in sore need of the inspiration of great principles. Such leadership can be the rallying point against intolerance, against distrust, against that fatal insecurity that leads to war. It is to be hoped that the democratic nations can provide the necessary leadership.