Search results
In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle examines the origins of a famous phrase ‘We have nothing to fear except fear itself.’ Those words – and the sentiment they convey – are inextricably bound up with Franklin D. Roosevelt.
“Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself”: FDR’s First Inaugural Address. Franklin D. Roosevelt had campaigned against Herbert Hoover in the 1932 presidential election by saying as little as possible about what he might do if elected.
Apr 4, 2018 · I would even come up the early thirties, and see a man grappling with the problems of the bankruptcy of his nation. And come with an eloquent cry that we have nothing to fear but fear...
Dec 11, 2020 · This 1926 speech has the seeds of "We have nothing to fear but fear itself" embedded in it, because even at this early stage of his political career, FDR knew that fear was our biggest...
Where did the line in FDR’s First Inaugural Address, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” come from? Did he write it? Answer. Columbia University professor Raymond Moly wrote most of Roosevelt’s speech, and talked over his initial drafts with the president-elect.
This phrase, “nothing to fear but fear itself”, is a reference to the sensation of fear that is the worst enemy of humankind. It keeps one aback and troubles one’s soul. The worst form of fear is the gloomy thoughts that create an eerie atmosphere inside one’s mind.
So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.
