Theodore Roosevelt Panama Canal Quotes

The mass of the American people are most emphatically not in the deplorable condition of which you speak. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

The fortunes amassed through corporate organization are now so large, and vest such power in those that wield them, as to make it a matter of necessity to give to the sovereign - that is, to the Government, which represents the people as a whole - some effective power of supervision over their corporate use. In order to insure a healthy social and industrial life, every big corporation should be held responsible by, and be accountable to, some sovereign strong enough to control its conduct. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us. We have duties to others and duties to ourselves, and we can shrink neither. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

No people is wholly civilized where a distinction is drawn between stealing an office and stealing a purse. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

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

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

Honesty first; then courage; then brains - and all are indispensable. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

No greater wrong can ever be done than to put a good man at the mercy of a bad, while telling him not to defend himself or his fellows; in no way can the success of evil be made surer or quicker. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt came to Dekota to experience the dying of one age with the slaying of a rare buffalo and the dawning of the West's industrial age. ~ H.W. Brands

The Cubists are entitled to the serious attention of all who find enjoyment in the colored puzzle pictures of the Sunday newspapers. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

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

If I have to choose between peace and righteousness, I'll choose righteousness. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

This was my first real lesson in politics ... If you are cast on a desert island with only a screwdriver, hatchet, and the chisel to make a boat with, why, go and make the best one you can. It would be better if you had a saw, but you haven't, so with men. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Water is a commodity not by any means to be found everywhere ... When found, it is more than likely to be bad, being either from a bitter alkaline pool, or from a hole in a creek, so muddy that it can only be called liquid by courtesy. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Gradually, however, I was forced to abandon the effort to persuade them to come my way, and then I achieved results only by appealing over the heads of the Senate and House leaders to the people, who were the masters of both of us. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

There is no patent recipe for getting good citizenship. You get it by applying the old, old rules of decent conduct, the rules in accordance with which decent men have had to shape their lives from the beginning .. fundamental precepts, put forth in the Bible and embodied consciously or unconsciously in the code of morals of every great and successful nation from antiquity to modern times. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

It tires me to talk to rich men. You expect a man of millions, the head of a great industry, to be a man worthhearing; but as a rule they don't know anything outside their own business. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

If a man does not have an ideal and try to live up to it, then he becomes a mean, base and sordid creature, no matter how successful. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

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

Cowardice in a race, as in an individual, is the unpardonable sin. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Laissez-faire, says the professor, when it often means bind and gag that the strongest may work his will. It is a plea for the survival of the fittest - for the strongest male to take possession of the herd by a process of extermination. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

A just war is in the long run far better for a man's soul than the most prosperous peace. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

I believe that this Republic will endure for many centuries. If so there will doubtless be among its Presidents Protestants and Catholics, and very probably at some time, Jews. I have consistently tried while President to act in relation to my fellow Americans of Catholic faith as I hope that any future President who happens to be Catholic will act towards his fellow Americans of Protestant faith. Had I followed any other course I should have felt that I was unfit to represent the American people. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Malefactors of great wealth have arrogantly ignored the public welfare. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

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

Again, it was proposed that we should go up the mountains and make our camps there. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

The name Roosevelt has this legendary force in our country at this time. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

We want men who will fix their eyes on the stars, but who will not forget that their feet must walk on the ground. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

It is better for the Government to help a poor man to make a living for his family than to help a rich man make more profit for his company. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

When you get to the end of your rope, tie a know and hang on. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

I was not going to earn money, I must even things up by not spending it. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Let us live in the harness, striving mightily. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

I feel most emphatically that we should not turn into shingles a tree which was old when the first Egyptian conqueror penetrated to the valley of the Euphrates. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

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

The one thing I want to leave my children is an honorable name. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

I hate a man who skins the land. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Every thinking man, when he thinks, realizes that the teachings of the Bible are so interwoven and intertwined with our whole civic and social life that it would be literally, I do not mean figuratively, but literally impossible for us to figure what the loss would be if these teachings were removed. We would lose all the standards by which we now judge both public and private morals; all the standards toward which we, with more or less resolution, strive to raise ourselves. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

But we must keep steadily in mind that no people were ever yet benefited by riches if their prosperity corrupted their virtue. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

The lack of power to take joy in outdoor nature is as real a misfortune as the lack of power to take joy in books ~ Theodore Roosevelt

The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly as necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

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

I think I have a good deal of my Uncle Theodore in me, because I could not, at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

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

However, my first visits to the tenement-house districts in question made me feel that, whatever the theories might be, as a matter of practical common sense I could not conscientiously vote for the continuance of the conditions which I saw. These conditions rendered it impossible for the families of the tenement-house workers to live so that the children might grow up fitted for the exacting duties of American citizenship. ~ Theodore Roosevelt