Theodore Roosevelt Quotes

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The joy in life is his who has the heart to demand it.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: The joy in life is
There are those who believe that a new modernity demands a new morality. What they fail to consider is the harsh reality that there is no such thing as a new morality. There is only one morality . All else is immorality.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: There are those who believe
I was a reasonably good student in college ... My chief interests were scientific. When I entered college, I was devoted to out-of-doors natural history, and my ambition was to be a scientific man of the Audubon, or Wilson, or Baird, or Coues type-a man like Hart Merriam, or Frank Chapman, or Hornaday, to-day.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: I was a reasonably good
No man can do both effective and decent work in public life unless he is a practical politician on the one hand, and a sturdy believer in Sunday-school politics on the other. He must always strive manfully for the best, and yet, like Abraham Lincoln, must often resign himself to accept the best possible.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: No man can do both
In doing your work in the great world, it is a safe plan to follow a rule I once heard on the football field: Don't flinch, don't fall; hit the line hard.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: In doing your work in
The important thing is this: that, under such government recognition as we may give to that which is beneficent and wholesome in large business organizations, we shall be most vigilant never to allow them to crystallize into a condition which shall make private initiative difficult. It is of the utmost importance that in the future we shall keep the broad path of opportunity just as open and easy for our children as it was for our fathers during the period which has been the glory of America's industrial history ...
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: The important thing is this:
There is nothing brilliant or outstanding in my record, except perhaps this one thing. I do the things I believe ought to be done. And when I make up my mind to do a thing, I act.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: There is nothing brilliant or
Of all the officers of the Government, those of the Department of Justice should be kept most free from any suspicion of improper action on partisan or factional grounds, so that there shall be gradually a growth, even though a slow growth, in the knowledge that the Federal courts and the representatives of the Federal Department of Justice insist on meting out even-handed justice to all.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: Of all the officers of
When she (my mother) passed away, I kind of understood the commitment that she made to make sure that I could stay in skating. And I wanted to live up to whatever I could. Not so much win everything, but just to be the best that I could possibly be, to honor her memory and everything she went through to make sure that I was given the opportunities to be the best that I can be. Not to be a world champion or an Olympic gold medalist, but to be the best that I could be. And that was the most important thing that ever happened in my career.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: When she (my mother) passed
Almost every man who has by his life-work added to the sum of human achievement of which the race is proud, of which our people are proud, almost every such man has based his life-work largely upon the teachings of the Bible
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: Almost every man who has
It is the people, and not the judges, who are entitled to say what their constitution means, for the constitution is theirs, it belongs to them and not to their servants in office - any other theory is incompatible with the foundation principles of our government.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: It is the people, and
Bodily vigor is good, and vigor of intellect is even better, but far above both is character. It is true, of course, that a genius may, on certain lines, do more than a brave and manly fellow who is not a genius; and so, in sports, vast physical strength may overcome weakness, even though the puny body may have in it the heart of a lion. But, in the long run, in the great battle of life, no brilliancy of intellect, no perfection of bodily development, will count when weighed in the balance against that assemblage of virtues, active and passive, of moral qualities, which we group together under the name of character; and if between any two contestants, even in college sport or in college work, the difference in character on the right side is as great as the difference of intellect or strength the other way, it is the character side that will win.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: Bodily vigor is good, and
I'm as strong as a bull moose and you can use me to the limit.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: I'm as strong as a
Life is as if you were traveling a ridge crest. You have the gulf of inefficiency on one side and the gulf of wickedness on the other, and it helps not to have avoided one gulf if you fall into the other.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: Life is as if you
The problems differ from generation to generation, but the qualities needed to solve them remain unchanged from world's end to world's end
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: The problems differ from generation
We will send ships and Marines as soon as possible for the protection of American life and property.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: We will send ships and
But the joy of life is a very good thing, and while work is the essential in it, play also has its place.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: But the joy of life
You can't choose your potential, but you can choose to fulfill it.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: You can't choose your potential,
After nightfall the face of the country seems to alter marvelously, and the clear moonlight only intensifies the change. The river gleams like running quicksilver, and the moonbeams play over the grassy stretches of the plateaus ... The Bad Lands seem to be stranger and wilder than ever, the silvery rays turning the country into a kind of grim fairyland.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: After nightfall the face of
The best lesson that any people can learn is that there is no patent cure-all which will make the body politic perfect, and that any man who is able glibly to answer every question as to how to deal with the evils of the body politic is at best a foolish visionary and at worst an evil-minded quack.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: The best lesson that any
Leave it as it is. You can not improve on it. You can only mar it. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it. What you can do is keep it for your children, your children's children and for all who come after you.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: Leave it as it is.
Now and then we hear the wilder voices of the wilderness, from animals that in the hours of darkness do not fear the neighborhood of man: the coyotes wail like dismal ventriloquists, or the silence may be broken by the snorting and stamping of a deer.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: Now and then we hear
All constitutions, those of the States no less than that of the nation, are designed, and must be interpreted and administered so as to fit human rights.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: All constitutions, those of the
Every lynching represents by just so much a loosening of the bands of civilisation; that the spirit of lynching inevitably throws into prominence in the community all the foul and evil creatures who dwell therein. No man can take part in the torture of a human being without having his own moral nature permanently lowered
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: Every lynching represents by just
A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: A man who is good
Want More Advice Like This?
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: Want More Advice Like This?
Yes, my friend, and if you will steal for me then you will steal from me.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: Yes, my friend, and if
I think we are warranted in contending that a society thus constituted, and which may be rendered so admirable an engine of improvement, far from meriting reproach, deserves highly of the community.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: I think we are warranted
There is apt to be a lunatic fringe among the votaries of any forward movement.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: There is apt to be
A President has a great chance; his position is almost that of a king and a prime minister rolled into one. Once he has left office he cannot do very much; and he is a fool if he fails to realize it all and to be profoundly thankful for having had the great chance.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: A President has a great
The Bad Lands grade all the way from those that are almost rolling in character to those that are so fantastically broken in form and so bizarre in color as to seem hardly properly to belong to this earth.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: The Bad Lands grade all
The true Christians are the true citizens, lofty of purpose, resolute in endeavor, ready for a hero's deeds, but never looking down on their task because it is cast in the day of small things; scornful of baseness, awake to their own duties as well as to their rights, following the higher law with reverence, and in this world doing all that in their power lies, so that when death comes they may feel that humanity is in some degree better because they lived.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: The true Christians are the
Is America a weakling, to shrink from the work of the great world powers? No! The young giant of the West stands on a continent and clasps the crest of an ocean in either hand. Our nation, glorious in youth and strength, looks into the future with eager eyes and rejoices as a strong man to run a race.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: Is America a weakling, to
[The media] cannot, month in month out and year in and year out, make the kind of untruthful, of bitter assault that they have made and not expect that brutal, violent natures, or brutal and violent characters, especially when the brutality is accompanied by a not very strong mind; they cannot expect that such natures will be unaffected by it.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: [The media] cannot, month in
Any political movement directed against any body of our fellow-citizens because of their religious creed is a grave offense against American principles and American institutions. It is a wicked thing either to support or oppose a man because of the creed he possesses ... Such a movement directly contravenes the spirit of the Constitution itself.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: Any political movement directed against
Fellow-feeling ... is the most important factor in producing a healthy political and social life. Neither our national nor our local civic life can be what it should be unless it is marked by the fellow-feeling, the mutual kindness, the mutual respect, the sense of common duties and common interests, which arise when men take the trouble to understand one another, and to associate together for a common object. A very large share of the rancor of political and social strife arises either from sheer misunderstanding by one section, or by one class, of another, or else from the fact that the two sections, or two classes, are so cut off from each other that neither appreciates the other's passions, prejudices, and, indeed, point of view, while they are both entirely ignorant of their community of feeling as regards the essentials of manhood and humanity.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: Fellow-feeling ... is the most
I entirely appreciate loyalty to ones friends, but loyalty to the cause of justice and honor stands above it.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: I entirely appreciate loyalty to
Peace is normally a great good, and normally it coincides with righteousness, but it is righteousness and not peace which should bind the conscience of a nation as it should bind the conscience of an individual; and neither a nation nor an individual can surrender conscience to another's keeping.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: Peace is normally a great
No President has ever enjoyed himself as much as I?
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: No President has ever enjoyed
Cowardice in a race, as in an individual, is the unpardonable sin.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: Cowardice in a race, as
When we undertake the impossible, we often fail to do anything at all.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: When we undertake the impossible,
To permit every lawless capitalist, every law-defying corporation, to take any action, no matter how iniquitous, in the effort to secure an improper profit and to build up privilege, would be ruinous to the Republic and would mark the abandonment of the effort to secure in the industrial world the spirit of democratic fair dealing.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: To permit every lawless capitalist,
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: It is not the critic
And to lose the chance to see frigatebirds soaring in circles above the storm, or a file of pelicans winging their way homeward across the crimson afterglow of the sunset, or a myriad terns flashing in the bright light of midday as they hover in a shifting maze above the beach
why, the loss is like the loss of a gallery of the masterpieces of the artists of old time.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: And to lose the chance
We face the future with our past and our present as guarantors of our promises; and we are content to stand or to fall by the record which we have made and are making.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: We face the future with
It is an incalculable added pleasure to any one's sum of happiness if he or she grows to know, even slightly and imperfectly, how to read and enjoy the wonder-book of nature.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: It is an incalculable added
As regards the extraordinary prizes, the element of luck is the determining factor.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: As regards the extraordinary prizes,
Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you've got to start young.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: Old age is like everything
There is honing to fear, bu fear itself/
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: There is honing to fear,
We are consuming our forests three times faster than they are being reproduced. Some of the richest timber lands of this continent have already been destroyed, and not replaced, and other vast areas are on the verge of destruction. Yet forests, unlike mines, can be so handled as to yield the best results of use, without exhaustion, just like grain fields.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: We are consuming our forests
There is a homely old adage which runs: "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." If the American nation will speak softly, and yet build and keep at a pitch of the highest training a thoroughly efficient navy, the Monroe Doctrine will go far.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: There is a homely old
Only those who live and sleep in the open fully realize the beauty of dawn and moonlight and starlight.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: Only those who live and
The liar is no whit better than the thief, and if his mendacity takes the form of slander he may be worse than most thieves. It puts a premium upon knavery untruthfully to attack an honest man, or even with hysterical exaggeration to assail a bad man with untruth.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: The liar is no whit
The wild life of today is not ours to do with as we please. The original stock was given to us in trust for the benefit both of the present and the future. We must render an accounting of this trust to those who come after us.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: The wild life of today
The American people abhor a vacuum.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: The American people abhor a
When the time of danger comes, all Americans, whatever their social standing, whatever their creed, whatever the training they have received, no matter from what section of the country they have come, stand together as men, as Americans, and are content to face the same fate and do the same duties because fundamentally they all alike have the common purpose to serve the glorious flag of their common country.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: When the time of danger
When men fear work or fear righteous war, when women fear motherhood, they tremble on the brink of doom; and well it is that they should vanish from the earth, where they are fit subjects for the scorn of all men and women who are themselves strong and brave and high-minded.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: When men fear work or
From its origin to the present hour, in all its vicissitudes, Masonry has been the steady unwearing friend of man.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: From its origin to the
We have room but for one Language here and that is the English Language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans of American nationality and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding-house.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: We have room but for
My power vanishes into thin air the instant that my fellow citizens, who are straight and honest, cease to believe that I represent them and fight for what is straight and honest. That is all the strength that I have.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: My power vanishes into thin
I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and in ... a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, ... increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: I believe in a graduated
I am a strong individualist by personal habit, inheritance, and conviction; but it is a mere matter of common sense to recognize that the State, the community, the citizens acting together, can do a number of things better than if they were left to individual action.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: I am a strong individualist
People ask the difference between a leader and a boss ... The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: People ask the difference between
Those who oppose all reform will do well to remember that ruin in its worst form is inevitable if our national life brings us nothing better than swollen fortunes for the few and the triumph in both politics and business of a sordid and selfish materialism.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: Those who oppose all reform
Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don't have the strength.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: Courage is not having the
In life, as in football, the principle to follow is to hit the line hard.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: In life, as in football,
It is out of the question for our people to rise by treading down any of their own number.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: It is out of the
It's not the critic that counts.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: It's not the critic that
Progress has brought us both unbounded opportunities and unbridled difficulties. Thus, the measure of our civilization will not be that we have done much, but what we have done with that much. I believe that the next half century will determine if we will advance the cause of Christian civilization or revert to the horrors of brutal paganism. The thought of modern industry in the hands of Christian charity is a dream worth dreaming. The thought of industry in the hands of paganism is a nightmare beyond imagining. The choice between the two is upon us.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: Progress has brought us both
In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.
[The Information Technology Management Reform Act of 1995: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management and the District of Columbia of the Committee on Governmental Affairs (1996)]
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: In any moment of decision,
After the war, and until the day of his death, his position on almost every public question was either mischievous or ridiculous, and usually both.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: After the war, and until
I am part of everything that I have read.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: I am part of everything
There are always in life countless tendencies for good and for evil, and each succeeding generation sees some of these tendencies strengthened and some weakened; nor is it by any means always, alas! that the tendencies for evil are weakened and those for good strengthened. But during the last few decades there certainly have been some notable changes for good in boy life. The great growth in the love of athletic sports, for instance, while fraught with danger if it becomes one-sided and unhealthy, has beyond all question had an excellent effect in increased manliness.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: There are always in life
And the combination is rare.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: And the combination is rare.
An Airedale can do anything any other dog can do and then whip the other dog if he has to.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: An Airedale can do anything
in the writing of good English is indispensable to any learned man who expects to make his learning count for what it ought to count in the effect on his fellow men.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: in the writing of good
Believe you can do it and you are halfway there
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: Believe you can do it
The Cubists are entitled to the serious attention of all who find enjoyment in the colored puzzle pictures of the Sunday newspapers.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: The Cubists are entitled to
The wise and honorable and Christian thing to do is to treat each black man and each white man (or any person) on his merits as a man, giving him no more and no less than he is worthy to have.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: The wise and honorable and
In every community there are little knots of fantastic extremists who loudly proclaim that they are striving for righteousness, and who, in reality, do their feeble best for unrighteousness. Just as the upright politician should hold in peculiar scorn the man who makes the name of politician a reproach and a shame, so the genuine reformer should realize that the cause he champions is especially jeopardized by the mock reformer who does what he can to make reform a laughingstock among decent men.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: In every community there are
The supreme duty of the Nation is the conservation of human resources through an enlightened measure of social and industrial justice. We pledge ourselves to work unceasingly in State and Nation for ... the protection of home life against the hazards of sickness, irregular employment and old age through the adoption of a system of social insurance adapted to American use.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: The supreme duty of the
The Armenian massacre was the greatest crime of the war..
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: The Armenian massacre was the
Let men express the intense admiration, which I share with all other Americans, of the record made by the Marines.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: Let men express the intense
With self-discipline, all things are possible
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: With self-discipline, all things are
No people on earth have more cause to be thankful than ours, and this is said reverently, in no spirit of boastfulness in our own strength, but with the gratitude to the Giver of good who has blessed us.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: No people on earth have
Make preparations in advance ... you never have trouble if you are prepared for it.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: Make preparations in advance ...
I am for such a League [of Nations] provided we don't expect too much from it. . . . I am not willing to play the pan which even Aesop held up to derision when he wrote of how the wolves and the sheep agreed to disarm, and how the sheep as a guarantee of good faith sent away the watchdogs, and were then forthwith eaten by the wolves.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: I am for such a
To exist as a nation, to prosper as a state, and to live as a people, we must have trees.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: To exist as a nation,
There is nothing more distressing ... than the hard, scoffing spirit which treats the allegation of dishonesty in a public man as a cause for laughter. Such laughter is worse than the crackling of thorns under a pot, for it denotes not merely the vacant mind, but the heart in which high emotions have been choked before they could grow to fruition.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: There is nothing more distressing
We rested a couple of hours at noon for lunch, and the afternoon's sport was simply a repetition of the morning's, except that we had but one dog to work with; for shortly after mid-day the stub-tail pointer, for his sins, encountered a skunk, with which he waged prompt and valiant battle - thereby rendering himself, for the balance of the time, wholly useless as a servant and highly offensive as a companion.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: We rested a couple of
I stand for the square deal," Roosevelt said. "But when I say that I am for the square deal, I mean not merely that I stand for fair play under the present rules of the game, but that I stand for having those rules changed so as to work for a more substantial equality of opportunity and of reward for equally good service. One word of warning, which, I think, is hardly necessary in Kansas. When I say I want a square deal for the poor man, I do not mean that I want a square deal for the man who remains poor because he has not got the energy to work for himself. If a man who has had a chance will not make good, then he has got to quit.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: I stand for the square
It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: It is hard to fail,
When I hear of the destruction of a species, I feel just as if all the works of some great writer have perished.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: When I hear of the
Let individuals contribute as they desire; but let us prohibit in effective fashion all corporations from making contributions for any political purpose, directly or indirectly.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: Let individuals contribute as they
But there are other men who put peace ahead of righteousness, and who care so little for facts that they treat fantastic declarations for immediate universal arbitration as being valuable, instead of detrimental, to the cause they profess to champion, and who seek to make the United States impotent for international good under the pretense of making us impotent for international evil. All the men of this kind, and all of the organizations they have controlled, since we began our career as a nation, all put together, have not accomplished one hundredth part as much for both peace and righteousness, have not done one hundredth part as much either for ourselves or for other peoples, as was accomplished by the people of the United States when they fought the war with Spain and with resolute good faith and common sense worked out the solution of the problems which sprang from the war.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: But there are other men
In the long run, success or failure will be
conditioned upon the way in which the average man, the average women, does his or her duty, first in the ordinary, every-day affairs of life, and next in those great occasional cries which call for heroic virtues. The average citizen must be a good citizen if our republics are to succeed. The stream will not permanently rise higher than the main source; and the main source of national power and national greatness is found in the average citizenship of the nation.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: In the long run, success
I regard the Masonic institution as one of the means ordained by the Supreme Architect to enable mankind to work out the problem of destiny; to fight against, and overcome, the weaknesses and imperfections of his nature, and at last to attain to that true life of which death is the herald and the grave the portal.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: I regard the Masonic institution
To every man who faces life with real desire to do his part in everything, I appeal for a study of the Bible.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: To every man who faces
The civilized people of today look back with horror at their medieval ancestors who wantonly destroyed great works of art or sat slothfully by while they destroyed. We have passed this stage ... Here in the U.S. we turn our rivers and streams into sewers and dumping grounds, we pollute the air, we destroy our forests and exterminate fishes, birds and mammals - not to speak of vulgarizing charming landscapes with hideous advertisements. But at best it looks as if our people were awakening.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: The civilized people of today
Boxing, jiu-jitsu, scaling the Matterhorn ... I did cardio before cardio was cool.
Theodore Roosevelt Quotes: Boxing, jiu-jitsu, scaling the Matterhorn
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