- Louis Howe: You don't have to remember a thing. You just read it!
- Eleanor Roosevelt: I don't like *reading* a speech.
- Louis Howe: Did you think the Gettysburg Address was ad-libbed?
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt: [putting on his hat to wave at the photographers that he has eluded by boarding the train secretly] Do I look snappy?
- Eleanor Roosevelt: I have this naive view that you should pursue principles without calculating the consequences.
- Louis Howe: You're no politician.
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt: I feel I've had to go through the fire for some reason. Eleanor, it's a hard way to learn humility, but I've had to learn it by crawling. I know what is meant "You must learn to crawl, before you can walk."
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt: I often think of something Woodrow Wilson said to me. It is only once in a generation the people can be lifted above material things. That is why conservative government is in the saddle for two thirds of the time.
- Sara Delano Roosevelt: [upon hearing Eleanor was out giving a speech] You know my feelings about politics generally. It's a tawdry business for a man. And I believe shocking for a woman.
- Eleanor Roosevelt: Franklin, may I say a word?
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Certainly, if you're going to agree with me.
- Eleanor Roosevelt: Then I have nothing to say.
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt: That is hardly a sign of wifely devotion.
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt: When you're forced to sit a lot, and watch others move about, you feel apart, lonely - because you can't get up and pace around.
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Louis, why in hell must you keep pacing up and down?
- Louis Howe: I'm nervous!
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Good morning to you, Mr. Howe. You're looking your usual dyspeptic self.
- Louis Howe: None of your amiable chatter, please.
- Louis Howe: I tried on a nurse's uniform. And while the skirt was rather flattering, I don't look well in white.
- Mr. Lassiter: You must be aware of the fears that many Americans have when they contemplate the election of a Catholic to the presidency of the United States. The domination of the church over its members is well known, and Governor Smith is a devout Catholic.
- Louis Howe: Would it be more acceptable if he were a renegade Catholic?
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt: God has an infinite variety of tasks. I don't believe he's available as campaign manager.