The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered this line in his First Inaugural Address on March 4, 1933, at the U.S. Capitol, as he assumed the presidency amid the depths of the Great Depression. Bank failures, mass unemployment, and collapsing confidence had produced widespread panic, including bank runs that threatened the financial system. Roosevelt’s inaugural sought to steady the public mood and justify decisive federal action. By naming “fear itself” as the chief enemy, he framed panic and paralysis as forces that could worsen economic catastrophe, preparing listeners for emergency measures and a more activist government.

The statement argues that fear can be more destructive than the external crisis that provokes it. Roosevelt treats fear as a self-reinforcing contagion: when people panic, they withdraw cooperation, hoard resources, and avoid risk, thereby deepening economic contraction and social instability. The line is also rhetorical strategy—an attempt to convert anxiety into resolve by redefining courage as collective action rather than private optimism. In the inaugural’s broader logic, overcoming fear is a prerequisite for recovery because confidence enables credit, investment, and coordinated public response. It remains influential as a concise formulation of psychological barriers to political and economic change.

“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.”