All work undertaken should be useful - not just for a day, or a year, but useful in the sense that it affords permanent improvement in living conditions or that it creates future new wealth for the Nation.
Interpretation
Work should lead to lasting improvements and benefits for society.
This quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt emphasizes the importance of engaging in meaningful work that contributes to the betterment of society and enhances living conditions for the long term. It suggests that efforts should not be short-lived or superficial but should create sustainable wealth and improve the quality of life for future generations.
In practice
A motivational speaker might use this quote to encourage young professionals to seek meaningful careers.
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.
There is no greater glory that can befall a man that what he achieves with the speed of his feet or the strength of his hands.
The door to a balanced success opens widest on the hinges of hope and encouragement.
Approach each customer with the idea of helping him or her solve a problem or achieve a goal, not of selling a product or service.
It's not how much money you make, but how much money you keep, how hard it works for you, and how many generations you keep it for.
Opportunity rarely knocks on your door. Knock rather on opportunity's door if you ardently wish to enter.
Men never plan to be failures; they simply fail to plan to be successful
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