No government can help the destinies of people who insist in putting sectional and class consciousness ahead of general weal.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of unity over division in society for effective governance.
Franklin D. Roosevelt's quote highlights that a government's ability to aid its citizens is hindered when people prioritize their own interests and divisions—based on class or sect—over the collective good. By suggesting that sectional and class consciousness obstructs the general well-being or 'weal', he underscores the necessity for a united front for any governmental progress towards the welfare of all.
In practice
In a discussion about societal progress, one might refer to Roosevelt's quote to emphasize the need for collective effort.
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 have never regarded politics as the arena of morals. It is the arena of interest.
First of all, the world criticizes American foreign policy because Americans criticize American foreign policy. We shouldn't be surprised about that. Criticizing government is a God-given right - at least in democracies.
Democracy belongs to those who exercise it.
Make sure your son and daughter understands they don't get to decide when or where they go to war. It is rich, predominantly white men in the House and Senate that have the power to send children of other parents - but not their own children - off to die [and] be injured in a senseless war.
People see America through particular lenses, either their profession, their race or their gender. So the party that speaks to our racial perceptions and offers solutions to the racial difficulties which we face is the party that's going to be rewarded with our votes.
'Do you pray for the senators, Dr. Hale?' No, I look at the senators and I pray for the country.
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