"Few expected very much of Franklin Roosevelt on Inauguration Day in 1933. Like Barack Obama seventy-six years later, he was succeeding a failed Republican president, and Americans had voted for change. What that change might be Roosevelt never clearly said, probably because he himself didn't know.“


-Russell Baker

posted in change


Few expected very much of Franklin Roosevelt on Inauguration Day in 1933. Like Barack Obama seventy-six years later, he was succeeding a failed Republican president, and Americans had voted for change. What that change might be Roosevelt never clearly said, probably because he himself didn't know.

Other Quotes You Might Like

Discover more inspiring quotes from our collection

"Americans like fat books and thin women."

-Russell Baker

womenView Quote
"Strategic thinkers were naturally rattled to find this outsider fooling around with their work. They had been thinking strategically when Reagan was just another movie actor playing opposite a chimpanzee, for heaven's sake. They think Reagan is too naive, too innocent, to grasp the intellectual complexities of cold war strategy."

-Russell Baker

warView Quote
"Those who remember Washington's cold war culture in the 1980s will recall the shocked reactions to Reagan's intervention. People interested in foreign policy were astonished when in 1985 he met alone at Geneva - alone, not a single strategic thinker at his elbow! - with the Soviet Communist master Gorbachev."

-Russell Baker

warView Quote
"Usually, terrible things that are done with the excuse that progress requires them are not really progress at all, but just terrible things."

-Russell Baker

societyView Quote
"You can always tell folks from nonfolks. Folks like to feel good, like to smile for the camera when there's a big photo opportunity for a really good cause."

-Russell Baker

smileView Quote
"Inanimate objects can be classified scientifically into three major categories those that don't work, those that break down and those that get lost."

-Russell Baker

scienceView Quote

More Quotes About change

Explore other inspiring quotes in this category

"You do have to change things as warfare changes."

-Charles Schumer

changeView Quote
"My kid could get a bad X-ray and I could get a call from the doctor saying I have something growing in my bum and that would change my perspective on everything instantaneously, on what is and what is not important."

-Tom Hanks

changeView Quote
"What creates freedom? A revolution in the streets? Mass protest? Civil war? A change of government? The ousting of the old guard and its replacement by the new? History, more often than not, shows that hopes raised by such events are often dashed, sooner rather than later."

-Jonathan Sacks

changeView Quote
"Europe is dying. That is one of the unsayable truths of our time. We are undergoing the moral equivalent of climate change and no one is talking about it."

-Jonathan Sacks

changeView Quote
"Most of what needs to be changed in the euro zone can be done without treaty changes. The demand for treaty change is as political as it is legal and I don't think it's going to happen soon."

-Nick Clegg

changeView Quote
"Much can and must be done by governments, but they cannot of themselves change lives."

-Jonathan Sacks

changeView Quote