Watchwords

The text is taken and edited from 11 different speeches and writings of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

(Introduction) We have faith that future generations will know… there came a time when men of goodwill found a way to unite, and produce, and fight fight to destroy the forces of ignorance, and intolerance, and war.

(Refrain) It takes a long, long time to bring the past up to the present. We may make mistakes, but not from faintness of heart. It takes a long, long time to bring the past up to the present. The world will move toward unity or it will move apart.

(Verse) We are trying to construct a more inclusive society, to make a country in which no one is left out. We are trying to construct a more inclusive society, to make a country in which no one is left out.

(Refrain) It takes a long, long time to bring the past up to the present. The only limit to our tomorrow will be our doubts of today. It takes a long, long time to bring the past up to the present. Remember you are just an extra in ev’ryone else’s play.

(Verse) There are forces that drive men apart and forces that draw men together. As a nation, we all go up, or all go down, as one. There are forces that drive men apart and forces that draw men together. As a nation, we all go up, or all go down, as one.

(Refrain) It takes a long, long time to bring the past up to the present. The virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea. It takes a long, long time to bring the past up to the present. We are bound together by unity of freedom and equality.

(Spoken) I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm.

(Refrain: reprise) It takes a long, long time to bring the past up to the present. We may make mistakes, but not from faintness of heart. It takes a long, long time to bring the past up to the present. The world will move toward unity or it will move apart.

(Coda) It takes a long, long time It takes a long, long time… to bring the past up to the present.