Freedom of conscience, of education, of speech, of assembly are among the very fundamentals of democracy and all of them would be nullified should freedom of the press ever be successfully challenged.
Interpretation
Freedom of the press is essential for democracy, as it protects other civil liberties.
In this quote, Franklin D. Roosevelt emphasizes that the freedoms of conscience, education, speech, and assembly are foundational to a democratic society, and warns that if freedom of the press is undermined, these other freedoms would also be at risk. The quote underlines the interdependence of various civil liberties and the crucial role of a free press in safeguarding democracy.
In practice
During a speech advocating for press freedom, one might quote Roosevelt to highlight the importance of a free press.
There has been one persistent theme through all Axis propaganda. This theme has been that Americans are admittedly rich, that Americans have considerable industrial power - but that Americans are soft and decadent, that they cannot and will not unite and work and fight. ... Let them tell that to the Marines!
The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.
A war of ideas can no more be won without books than a naval war can be won without ships. Books, like ships, have the toughest armor, the longest cruising range, and mount the most powerful guns.
Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.
A world turned into a stereotype, a society converted into a regiment, a life translated into a routine, make it difficult for either art or artists to survive. Crush individuality in society and you crush art as well. Nourish the conditions of a free life and you nourish the arts, too.
I want to make a policy statement. I am unabashedly in favor of women.
A wise nation should cultivate a political spirit that allows opponents to cooperate without fearing an automatic execution from their core supporters. Who knew that the real rogues in American politics would be the ones who dare to get along?
Our tax policy is engineered by people who view tax as a means of achieving changes in our social structure.
Tyranny has perhaps oftener grown out of the assumptions of power, called for, on pressing exigencies, by a defective constitution, than out of the full exercise of the largest constitutional authorities.
But as the arms-control scholar Thomas Schelling once noted, two things are very expensive in international life: promises when they succeed and threats when they fail.
We are not making this demand for the sake of a principle, but in the interests of the proletarian class.
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