I have felt a slightly contemptuous amusement over the discussion that has been going on for several months about my popularity or waning popularity or absence of popularity. I am not a college freshman […] and therefore I am not concerned about my “popularity” save in exactly so far as it is an instrument which will help me to achieve my purposes.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)

Letter to Sereno S. Pratt (1 Mar 1906)
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