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.
Interpretation
Books are essential for winning ideological battles, just as ships are vital for naval warfare.
Franklin D. Roosevelt emphasizes the importance of books as vital tools in the discourse of ideas, likening their significance to that of ships in warfare. He illustrates that just as a naval fleet requires ships to succeed at sea, intellectual struggles and the advancement of human thought depend on the dissemination of knowledge through books, which provide the intellectual strength and longevity necessary for sustaining ideological battles.
In practice
In a speech about promoting literacy and education, one could use this quote to highlight the importance of books.
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.
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 have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics. Out of the collapse of a prosperity whose builders boasted their practicality has come the conviction that in the long run economic morality pays.
The most profound lessons about journalism I've learned have been taught to me by the people I've covered.
The point is to develop the childlike inclination for play and the childlike desire for recognition and to guide the child over to important fields for society. Such a school demands from the teacher that he be a kind of artist in his province.
One of the greatest gifts adults can give - to their offspring and to their society - is to read to children.
Everywhere I go, the kids call me 'the book lady.' The older I get, the more appreciative I seem to be of the 'book lady' title. It makes me feel more like a legitimate person, not just a singer or an entertainer. But it makes me feel like I've done something good with my life and with my success.
My first reaction every time I delve into an episode of history that I don't know very much about is... my first reaction is anger that my teachers never taught me about it.
You don't teach morals and ethics and empathy and kindness in the schools. You teach that at home, and children learn by example.
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