"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."
— Franklin D. Roosevelt
The Test Of Our Progress Is
The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.
About this quote
From Roosevelt's Second Inaugural Address, delivered January 20, 1937, during which he surveyed the partial recovery from the Depression and argued it was incomplete. The speech is notable for its frank acknowledgment that millions of Americans — "one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished" — had not shared in the recovery. This line crystallizes the progressive premise of the New Deal: that the measure of national progress is not aggregate wealth but the condition of the most vulnerable. The address was delivered before a record 70,000 people at the Capitol in a driving rainstorm.
Source
Second Inaugural Address, 1937