I believe that in every country the people themselves are more peaceably and liberally inclined than their governments.
Interpretation
People are generally more peaceful and open-minded than the governments that represent them.
Franklin D. Roosevelt's quote suggests that the common people of any nation are inherently more inclined towards peace and liberal values compared to the often restrictive and authoritarian nature of their governments. This highlights the potential disconnect between the population's desires and the actions of those in power, advocating for a view that emphasizes the goodwill of individuals over the decisions made by political leaders.
In practice
During a discussion on international relations, one might say this quote to highlight the gap between citizens and their governments.
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.
Every institution is inherently demonic.
I'm really looking forward to it, if you can imagine floating weightless, watching the world pour by through the big bay window of the space station playing a guitar; just a tremendous place to think about where we are in history.
For it would have been better that man should have been born dumb, nay, void of all reason, rather than that he should employ the gifts of Providence to the destruction of his neighbor.
One of the roles of the press is to make sure that the president, in the voice of the people, is telling the truth.
Blessed is he who carries within himself a God, an ideal, and who obeys it: ideal of art, ideal of science, ideal of the gospel virtues, therein lie the springs of great thoughts and great actions; they all reflect light from the Infinite.
This is something everyone knows: A well-used city street is apt to be a safe street. A deserted city street is apt to be unsafe.
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