“There is nothing to fear but fear itself.”
- Credited to
- Franklin Roosevelt
- Cites
- Speeches That Changed the World (1933)
A recorded run from 12 October 2026, with 5 sites that already answer it kept out of the search.
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
Usually credited to Franklin D. Roosevelt
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19 of 19 pages, 12 confirmed
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2 cited works, 4 pages found
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correctly attributed· high confidencejudged on Nemotron 3 Super
Franklin D. Roosevelt said it
Earliest trace: Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933 n4
The quotation appears in Franklin D. Roosevelt's First Inaugural Address of March 4, 1933, as shown by pages n2 n1, and n4 which carries a page date of 1933 and attributes the line to Franklin D. Roosevelt n4. A later page n6 attributes the phrase to Louis McHenry Howe via a 1954 source, but that attribution is much later and lacks corroboration from the primary speech n6. No earlier instance of the saying is found in the evidence, so the credit to Roosevelt is supported.
The known answerCorrectly credited to Franklin D. RooseveltSame verdict as this run
Earliest known: First Inaugural Address, by Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933-03-04.
The wording is Roosevelt's. Seneca and Montaigne expressed similar ideas centuries earlier, but that doesn't make the credit wrong.
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- The run itself: when it started, which sites it left out, and when it stopped.
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- Writes the search: other wordings of the quote, who might have said it, and the queries.
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- Web search through Tavily, which brings back the pages to read.
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- Reads one page and copies the quote word for word, with who the page credits, its date and any older work it names.
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- Plain code, no model. Checks every copied line against the page text, allowing small differences in wording, and crosses out what it can't find there. It also corrects a verdict's earliest date or page when the pages don't back it.
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- Picks older works the confirmed pages name and looks for them in digital libraries, for up to two rounds.
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- Weighs only the confirmed pages and gives the verdict, which code checks before it stands.
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Started. Sites that already wrote up answers are left out: quoteinvestigator.com, wikiquote.org, wikipedia.org, avalon.law.yale.edu, en.wikiquote.org
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Planned 5 searches and 3 other wordings
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5 results for "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
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5 results for earliest newspaper appearance "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself"
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5 results for first book or speech where "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" appears
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5 results for "Francis Bacon" fear itself quote
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5 results for "Michel de Montaigne" fear itself quote
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14 pages to read
- Reader
Found the quote on theinvisiblementor.com
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Confirmed n5 on theinvisiblementor.com
- Reader
Found the quote on fdrlibrary.org
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Confirmed n2 on fdrlibrary.org
- Reader
Found the quote on presidency.ucsb.edu
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Confirmed n4 on presidency.ucsb.edu
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Found the quote on nps.gov
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Confirmed n3 on nps.gov
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Found the quote on aetc.af.mil
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Confirmed n1 on aetc.af.mil
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Found the quote on bookbrowse.com
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Confirmed n8 on bookbrowse.com
- Reader
Found the quote on medium.com
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Confirmed n7 on medium.com
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No quote on c-span.org
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No quote on wist.info
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Found the quote on teachinghistory.org
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Confirmed n6 on teachinghistory.org
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No quote on britannica.com
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No quote on iep.utm.edu
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No quote on gutenberg.org
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No quote on plato.stanford.edu
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- Genealogist
Following First Inaugural Address by Franklin D. Roosevelt (cited by n1); Inaugural Address of Franklin D. Roosevelt (cited by n2)
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5 results for Franklin D. Roosevelt First Inaugural Address
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5 results for Franklin D. Roosevelt Inaugural Address March 4 1933
- Genealogist
5 new pages to read
- Reader
No quote on guides.loc.gov (looking for First Inaugural Address by Franklin D. Roosevelt)
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Found the quote on archive.org
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Confirmed n19 on archive.org
- Reader
Found the quote on gutenberg.org
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Confirmed n18 on gutenberg.org
- Reader
Found the quote on loc.gov
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Confirmed n16 on loc.gov
- Reader
Found the quote on gutenberg.org
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- Checker
Confirmed n15 on gutenberg.org
- Judge
Verdict: correctly attributed, high confidence
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Done in 183s
Where the quote turns up, oldest first
- 1933
n5theinvisiblementor.com1933 n2fdrlibrary.org1933 “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
- Credited to
- Franklin Roosevelt
- Cites
- First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933
n4presidency.ucsb.edu1933 Earliest the judge found
“the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”
- Credited to
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
n1aetc.af.mil1933 “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
- Credited to
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- Cites
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt's inaugural address (1933)
n15gutenberg.org1933 “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.”
- Credited to
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Found via
- n1, looking for First Inaugural Address by Franklin D. Roosevelt
- 1934
n18gutenberg.org1934 “I have said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
- Credited to
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Found via
- n2, looking for Inaugural Address of Franklin D. Roosevelt
- 1941
n19archive.org1941 “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
- Credited to
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Found via
- n2, looking for Inaugural Address of Franklin D. Roosevelt
- 1954
n6teachinghistory.org1954 “I don’t care what else Franklin says in his inaugural address as long as he tells the people that the only thing they have to fear is fear.”
- Credited to
- Louis McHenry Howe
- Cites
- Lela Stiles, The Man Behind Roosevelt: The Story of Louis McHenry Howe. New York: The World Publishing Company, 1954, p. 235.
- 2021
n3nps.gov2021 “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
- Credited to
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
n7medium.com2021-01-22 “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
- Credited to
- FDR
- No date
n8bookbrowse.com “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”
- Cites
- Inaugural Address, 1933
n16loc.gov “In his first inaugural address, FDR asserted his "firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself--nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror.”
- Credited to
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- Found via
- n1, looking for First Inaugural Address by Franklin D. Roosevelt