The Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself

In pandemic response, let reason prevail over panic to curb economic crisis and safeguard civil liberties

People have lunch at a restaurant in Stockholm, Sweden, on April 22, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images

Commentary

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Those were the famous words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, spoken at his first inauguration on March 4, 1933, at the height of the Great Depression.