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.
If there was no Bill Bowerman, there would have been no me. He had about as much of an impact on my life as any one person could have. He taught me about competition and ingrained it in me. He taught me not to praise ordinary performances.
I know I didn't deserve this, but God has given me this baseball ability. So I've got to do whatever I can to honor him.
Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
The winner asks, "May I help?" The loser asks, "Do you expect me to do that?"
The one requirement for success in our business lives is effort. Either you make the commitment to get results or you don't.
The secret of long life is double careers. One to about age sixty, then another for the next thirty years.
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