All of our people all over the country-except the pure-blooded Indians-are immigrants or descendants of immigrants, including even those who came over here on the Mayflower.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the immigrant nature of American society, acknowledging that all citizens, except Indigenous peoples, are connected to immigrant heritage.
Franklin D. Roosevelt's quote highlights the foundational aspect of immigration in shaping the United States. It reminds us that except for the Native Americans, everyone in the country can trace their roots back to immigrants, underscoring the importance of inclusivity and the rich tapestry of diverse cultures that have contributed to American identity. The mention of even those who arrived on the Mayflower illustrates that immigration is a historical constant in America, enticing reflection on current attitudes toward immigrants.
In practice
This quote can be shared during discussions on immigration policies.
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.
Lying is the most simple form of self-defence.
Our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class.
How many people worldwide are victims of this type of slavery, in which the person is at the service of his or her work, while work should offer a service to people so they may have dignity. I ask my brothers and sisters in faith and all men and women of good will for a decisive choice to combat trafficking in persons, which includes "slave labor."
History is a novel for which the people is the author.
Eternal life and the invisible world are only to be sought in God. Only within Him do all spirits dwell. He is an abyss of individuality, the only infinite plenitude.
We have no higher life that is really apart from other people. It is by imagining them that our personality is built up; to be without the power of imagining them is to be a low-grade idiot.
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