Category — President Quotes

An extremely famous quote in American history is the phrase delivered by Franklin D. Roosevelt during his first presidential inaugural address in 1933. His “nothing to fear quote” sounds so timeless; have you ever wondered if he was the first to use it? He certainly hasn’t been the last.

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. – Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States

Often times politicians, statesmen and famous people on the public stage quote passages from the Bible or other famous works of literature. Yes, there are many famous president quotes that come to mind. FDR was no exception, but was his “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” quote inspired from the Bible?

There is a Bible passage, found in the book of Proverbs, that could be construed to be very close to President Roosevelt’s fear quote . I don’t think it is remotely close enough to conclude that FDR used it for his speech though.

“Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh.” – Proverbs 3:25 KJV

“Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked.” – Proverbs 3:25 NIV

There are a couple of other notables in history who have used the fear of fear idea in their writings:

“The thing I fear most is fear”. – Michel de Montaigne, French Essayist / Writer,  1580

“Nothing is terrible except fear itself”. – Francis Bacon, English Author and Stateman, from his book De Augmentis Scientiarum, 1623

“The only thing i am afraid of is fear”. – The Duke of Wellington, 1831

“Nothing is so much to be feared as fear”. – Henry David Thoreau, 1851

Now while the idea of cleverly using fear as a verb and fear as a noun in the same sentence is well established, we can’t be sure to say the Franklin D. Roosevelt borrowed from the Bible or others when he put “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” into his inaugural speech. It may be that he was familiar with some of these quotes, being a student of the Bible and of history himself, but it’s just too common an idea to pinpoint the source. Perhaps he just took something that was common, and used it during an uncommon time to inspire our country to lift itself up. While others may have said it before him, history proves that FDR is the clear owner of today’s quote.

Here is the video of President Franklin D. Roosevelt making his famous inaugural speech in 1933.

We have choices before us each and every day, and the path is there to choose to do the right thing, or to choose to do the wrong. In our culture it seems that there is so much gray area, and I think that we often use that as an excuse to not try so hard to do right.

“I have tried so hard to do right.” – Grover Cleveland, American President (1885–1889 and 1893–1897)

I believe that God has given each of us a conscience, a portion of His Spirit if you will, that we should know right from wrong if we would only try. Today’s quote is NOT from the Bible, but it could be something any number of Biblical men or woman would have said or done. And so I encourage each of us to follow today’s quote from President Grover Cleveland that we would try so hard to do right. And remember the words of our Lord, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled”. (Matthew 5:6)

Today is the anniversary of the birthday of Grover Cleveland who was born March 18, 1837 in Caldwell, New Jersey. You can learn more about this day in history here.

Normally on a President’s Day I would put up some quotes of wisdom or something noteworthy of presidential honor. But given the sad state of politics these days I decided to NOT do this. So here is a collection of some really stupid president quotes (from newest to oldest). Yeah, I respect the office, but sometimes our presidents can say dumb things.

“Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go.” President Barack Obama Quote

“You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.” – President George W. Bush Quote

“Everybody knows that I have tougher ethics rules than any other previous President.” – President Bill Clinton Quote

“I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don’t always agree with them.” – President George H. W. Bush Quote

“If Abraham Lincoln was alive today he would roll over in his grave.” – President Gerald Ford Quote

“I was not lying. I said things that later on seemed to be untrue.” – President Richard Nixon Quote

“Oftentimes I don’t seem to grasp that I am President” – President Warren G. Harding Quote

These are just a few, does anyone care to add? (Hope I haven’t opened a can of worms here ). If you’d like to see some truly inspiring presidential quotes, go to our Presidents Quotes page. Also see George Washington Quotes, Abraham Lincoln Quotes, John F. Kennedy Quotes.