Governments can err, Presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted in different scales. Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the constant omission of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of compassion in governance, suggesting that occasional mistakes are preferable to a government that is indifferent to its people's needs.
Franklin D. Roosevelt highlights the idea that while governments can make mistakes, it is far more important that they operate with a spirit of charity and care for their citizens. He references Dante to illustrate that divine justice recognizes the nuances of human actions, suggesting that the warmth of a compassionate government, despite its errors, is more valuable than one that is cold and indifferent. In essence, he calls for governance that is human-centered and responsive, rather than purely bureaucratic.
In practice
A politician quoting this after a policy failure to emphasize their commitment to learning and improving for the community.
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.
We all want prosperity, but not at the expense of liberty. Poverty is not as great a danger to liberty as is wealth, with its corrupting, demoralizing influences. Let us never have a Government at Washington owing its retention to the power of the millionaires rather than to the will of millions.
American politics used to be an amateur sport. But somewhere along the way, we handed over to professionals all the things people used to do for free.
I am a Republican, a black, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress.
We are now vibrating between too much and too little government, and the pendulum will rest finally in the middle.
It is our job above all in politics to tackle the big issues and to explain them, and have the honesty to say to people, 'There are no easy solutions here.'
Syria should not belong to one family, to one coterie, or to one party. It belongs to all the people of Syria equally, in all their religious and ethnic diversity.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.