The Avalon Project at Yale Law School

The Four Freedoms


Annual Message of the President to the Congress, January 6 1941 (Excerpt)

In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression-everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his way - everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want-which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants-everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear-which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor - anywhere in the world.

Source:
A Decade of American Foriegn Policy : Basic Documents, 1941-49
Prepared at the request of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
By the Staff of the Committe and the Department of State.
Washington, DC : Government Printing Office, 1950

Decade of Foreign Policy 20th Century Page Avalon Home Page