Our nation was founded to perpetuate democratic principles. These principles are that each man is to be treated on his worth as a man without regard to the land from which his forefathers came and without regard to the creed which he professes. If the United States proves false to these principles of civil and religious liberty, it will have inflicted the greatest blow on the system of free popular government that has ever been inflicted.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“Americanism,” speech to the Knights of Columbus, New York (12 Oct 1915)
(Source)
Quotations by:
Roosevelt, Theodore
All of us, no matter from what land our parents came, no matter in what way we may severally worship our Creator, must stand shoulder to shoulder in a united America for the elimination of race and religious prejudice. We must stand for a reign of equal justice to both big and small.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“Americanism,” speech to the Knights of Columbus, New York (12 Oct 1915)
(Source)
True liberty shows itself to best advantage in protecting the rights of others, and especially of minorities.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“Biological Analogies in History,” Romanes Lecture, Oxford University (7 Jun 1910)
(Source)
Privilege should not be tolerated because it is to the advantage of a minority; nor yet because it is to the advantage of a majority. No doctrinaire theories of vested rights or freedom of contract can stand in the way of our cutting out abuses from the body politic.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“Biological Analogies in History,” Romanes Lecture, Oxford University (7 Jun 1910)
(Source)
Birds should be saved because of utilitarian reasons; and, moreover, they should be saved because of reasons unconnected with any return in dollars and cents. A grove of giant redwoods or sequoias should be kept just as we keep a great and beautiful cathedral. The extermination of the passenger pigeon meant that mankind was just so much poorer; exactly as in the case of the destruction of the cathedral at Rheims.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“Bird Reserves at the Mouth of the Mississippi,” A Book Lover’s Holiday in the Open (1916)
My position as regards the monied interests can be put in a few words. In every civilized society property rights must be carefully safeguarded; ordinarily and in the great majority of cases, human rights and property rights are fundamentally and in the long run, identical; but when it clearly appears that there is a real conflict between them, human rights must have the upper hand; for property belongs to man and not man to property.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“Citizenship in a Republic,” speech, Sorbonne, Paris (23 Apr 1910)
The good citizen will demand liberty for himself, and as a matter of pride he will see to it that others receive the liberty which he thus claims as his own. Probably the best test of true love of liberty in any country is the way in which minorities are treated in that country.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“Citizenship in a Republic,” speech, Sorbonne, Paris (23 Apr 1910)
It is a bad thing for a nation to raise and to admire a false standard of success; and there can be no falser standard than that set by the deification of material well-being in and for itself.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“Citizenship in a Republic,” speech, Sorbonne, Paris (23 Apr 1910)
It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong stumbled or where the doer of the deed could have done 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 and comes up short again and again. Who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumphs 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 know neither victory or defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“Citizenship in the Republic,” speech, Sorbonne, Paris, France (23 Apr 1910)
No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency. He is bound to do all the good possible. Yet he must consider the question of expediency, in order that he may do all the good possible, for otherwise he will do none.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“Latitude and Longitude Among Reformers,” The Century (Jun 1900)
Collected in his volume of essays and addresses, The Strenuous Life (1900); the first sentence is most often quoted, and often cited under that book's name (not to be confused with its title essay). Full text.
All men in whose character there is not an element of hardened baseness must admit the need in our public life of those qualities which we somewhat vaguely group together when we speak of “reform,” and all men of sound mind must also admit the need of efficiency. There are, of course, men of such low moral type, or of such ingrained cynicism, that they do not believe in the possibility of making anything better, or do not care to see things better. There are also men who are slightly disordered mentally, or who are cursed with a moral twist which makes them champion reforms less from a desire to do good to others than as a kind of tribute to their own righteousness, for the sake of emphasizing their own superiority. From neither of these classes can we get any real help in the unending struggle for righteousness. There remains the great body of the people, including the entire body of those through whom the salvation of the people must ultimately be worked out. All these men combine or seek to combine in varying degrees the quality of striving after the ideal, that is, the quality which makes men reformers, and the quality of so striving through practical methods — the quality which makes men efficient. Both qualities are absolutely essential. The absence of either makes the presence of the other worthless or worse.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“Latitude and Longitude Among Reformers,” The Century (Jun 1900)
(Source)
It is not possible to lay down an inflexible rule as to when compromise is right and when wrong; when it is a sign of the highest statesmanship to temporize, and when it is merely a proof of weakness. Now and then one can stand uncompromisingly for a naked principle and force people up to it. This is always the attractive course; but in certain great crises it may be a very wrong course. Compromise, in the proper sense, merely means agreement; in the proper sense opportunism should merely mean doing the best possible with actual conditions as they exist. A compromise which results in a half-step toward evil is all wrong, just as the opportunist who saves himself for the moment by adopting a policy which is fraught with future disaster is all wrong; but no less wrong is the attitude of those who will not come to an agreement through which, or will not follow the course by which, it is alone possible to accomplish practical results for good.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“Latitude and Longitude Among Reformers,” The Century (Jun 1900)
(Source)
[E]xactly as true patriots should be especially jealous of any appeal to what is base under the guise of patriotism, so men who strive for honesty, and for the cleansing of what is corrupt in the dark places of our politics, should emphatically disassociate themselves from the men whose antics throw discredit upon the reforms they profess to advocate.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“Latitude and Longitude Among Reformers,” The Century (Jun 1900)
(Source)
A caustic observer once remarked that when Dr. Johnson spoke of patriotism as the last refuge of a scoundrel, “he was ignorant of the infinite possibility contained in the word ‘reform.'”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“Latitude and Longitude among Reformers” (Jun 1900)
See Johnson.
We can best get justice by doing justice.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“National Duties” (2 Sep 1901)
A man must first care for his own household before he can be of use to the state. But no matter how well he cares for his household, he is not a good citizen unless he also takes thought of the state. In the same way, a great nation must think of its own internal affairs; and yet it cannot substantiate its claim to be a great nation unless it also thinks of its position in the world at large.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“Nationalism and International Relations,” Social Justice and Popular Rule, ch. 12 (1926).
There are plenty of decent legislators, and plenty of able legislators; but the blamelessness and the fighting edge are not always combined. Both qualities are necessary for the man who is to wage active battle against the powers that prey. He must be clean of life, so that he can laugh when his public or his private record is searched; and yet being clean of life will not avail him if he is either foolish or timid. He must walk warily and fearlessly, and while he should never brawl if he can avoid it, he must be ready to hit hard if the need arises. Let him remember, by the way, that the unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“Practical Politics,” The Outlook (26 Apr 1913)
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 (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“Sedition, A Free Press, and Personal Rule,” Kansas City Star (7 May 1918)
(Source)
Reprinted in "Lincoln and Free Speech," The Great Adventure (1926).
In life, as in a football game, the principle to follow is: Never flinch. Never foul. Hit the line hard.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The American Boy,” The Strenuous Life (1900)
Distrust above all other men the man who seeks to make you pass judgment upon your fellow citizens upon any ground of artificial distinction between you and them. Distrust the man who seeks to get you to favor them or discriminate against them either because they are well off or not well off, because they occupy one social position or another, because they live in one part of the country or another, or because they profess one creed or another.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The Cuban Dead,” speech, Arlington National Cemetery (12 Apr 1907)
Speech at the unveiling of the "Rough Riders" (1st U.S. Voluntary Cavalry) monument. Full text.
Remember this: Arrogance and envy are not different qualities: they are merely different manifestations of the same qualities. The rich man who looks down upon or oppresses the poor man is the very man who, if poor, would envy and hate the man who is richer. Conversely, the poor man who regards with bitter and malignant envy the man who is better off, who preaches the doctrine of hate toward that man, is himself the man who, if it had happened that he were rich, would grind down the faces of those who were less well off than he.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The Cuban Dead,” speech, Arlington National Cemetery (12 Apr 1907)
(Source)
Speech at the dedication of the 1st US Voluntary Cavalry ("Rough Riders") monument.
We are face to face with our destiny and we must meet it with a high and resolute courage. For us is the life of action, of strenuous performance of duty; let us live in the harness, striving mightily; let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The Duties of a Great Nation,” Speech, New York City (5 Oct 1898)
The prime thing that every man who takes an interest in politics should remember is that he must act, and not merely criticize the actions of others. It is not the man who sits by his fireside reading his evening paper, and saying how bad our politics and politicians are, who will ever do anything to save us; it is the man who goes out into the rough hurly-burly of the caucus, the primary, and the political meeting, and there faces his fellows on equal terms. The real service is rendered, not by the critic who stands aloof from the contest, but by the man who enters into it and bears his part as a man should, undeterred by the blood and the sweat.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The Manly Virtues and Practical Politics,” Forum (Jul 1894)
We are face to face with new conceptions of the relations of property to human welfare, chiefly because certain advocates of the rights of property as against the rights of men have been pushing their claims too far. The man who wrongly holds that every human right is secondary to his profit must now give way to the advocate of human welfare, who rightly maintains that every man holds his property subject to the general right of the community to regulate its use to whatever degree the public welfare may require it.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The New Nationalism,” speech, Osawatomie, Kansas (31 Aug 1910)
Full text.
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 (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The New Nationalism,” speech, Osawatomie, Kansas (31 Aug 1910)
Full text.
No man should receive a dollar unless that dollar has been fairly earned. Every dollar received should represent a dollar’s worth of service rendered — not gambling in stocks, but service rendered. The really big fortune, the swollen fortune, by the mere fact of its size acquires qualities which differentiate it in kind as well as in degree from what is possessed by men of relatively small means. Therefore, I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and in another tax which is far more easily collected and far more effective — a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded against evasion and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The New Nationalism,” speech, Osawatomie, Kansas (31 Aug 1910)
(Source)
Practical equality of opportunity for all citizens, when we achieve it, will have two great results. First, every man will have a fair chance to make of himself all that in him lies; to reach the highest point to which his capacities, unassisted by special privilege of his own and unhampered by the special privilege of others, can carry him, and to get for himself and his family substantially what he has earned. Second, equality of opportunity means that the commonwealth will get from every citizen the highest service of which he is capable. No man who carries the burden of the special privileges of another can give to the commonwealth that service to which it is fairly entitled.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The New Nationalism,” speech, Osawatomie, Kansas (31 Aug 1910)
No man can be a good citizen unless he has a wage more than sufficient to cover the bare cost of living, and hours of labor short enough so that after his day’s work is done he will have time and energy to bear his share in the management of the community, to help in carrying the general load. We keep countless men from being good citizens by the conditions of life with which we surround them.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The New Nationalism,” speech, Osawatomie, Kansas (31 Aug 1910)
(Source)
For every special interest is entitled to justice, but not one is entitled to a vote in Congress, to a voice on the bench, or to representation in any public office. The Constitution guarantees protections to property, and we must make that promise good. But it does not give the right of suffrage to any corporation. The true friend of property, the true conservative, is he who insists that property shall be the servant and not the master of the commonwealth; who insists that the creature of man’s making shall be the servant and not the master of the man who made it. The citizens of the United States must effectively control the mighty commercial forces which they have called into being.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The New Nationalism,” speech, Osawatomie, Kansas (31 Aug 1910)
(Source)
The object of government is the welfare of the people. The material progress and prosperity of a nation are desirable chiefly so far as they lead to the moral and material welfare of all good citizens.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The New Nationalism,” speech, Osawatomie, Kansas (31 Aug 1910)
(Source)
In every wise struggle for human betterment one of the main objects, and often the only object, has been to achieve in large measure equality of opportunity. In the struggle for this great end, nations rise from barbarism to civilization, and through it people press forward from one stage of enlightenment to the next. One of the chief factors in progress is the destruction of special privilege. The essence of any struggle for healthy liberty has always been, and must always be, to take from some one man or class of men the right to enjoy power, or wealth, or position, or immunity, which has not been earned by service to his or their fellows. That is what you fought for in the Civil War, and that is what we strive for now.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The New Nationalism,” speech, Osawatomie, Kansas (31 Aug 1910)
(Source)
[O]ur government, national and State, must be freed from the sinister influence or control of special interests. Exactly as the special interests of cotton and slavery threatened our political integrity before the Civil War, so now the great special business interests too often control and corrupt the men and methods of government for their own profit. We must drive the special interests out of politics.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The New Nationalism,” speech, Osawatomie, Kansas (31 Aug 1910)
(Source)
I believe that the officers, and, especially, the directors, of corporations should be held personally responsible when any corporation breaks the law.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The New Nationalism,” speech, Osawatomie, Kansas (31 Aug 1910)
(Source)
The absence of effective State, and, especially, National, restraint upon unfair money-getting has tended to create a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power. The prime need is to change the conditions which enable these men to accumulate power which is not for the general welfare that they should hold or exercise. We grudge no man a fortune which represents his own power and sagacity, when exercised with entire regard to the welfare of his fellows.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The New Nationalism,” speech, Osawatomie, Kansas (31 Aug 1910)
(Source)
I believe in national friendships and heartiest good-will to all nations; but national friendships, like those between men, must be founded on respect as well as on liking, on forbearance as well as upon trust. I should be heartily ashamed of any American who did not try to make the American Government act as Justly toward the other nations in international relations as he himself would act toward any individual in private relations. I should be heartily ashamed to see us wrong a weaker power, and I should hang my head forever if we tamely suffered wrong from a stronger power.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The New Nationalism,” speech, Osawatomie, Kansas (31 Aug 1910)
(Source)
Conservation means development as much as it does protection. I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land; but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us. I ask nothing of the nation except that it so behave as each farmer here behaves with reference to his own children. That farmer is a poor creature who skins the land and leaves it worthless to his children. The farmer is a good farmer who, having enabled the land to support himself and to provide for the education of his children leaves it to them a little better than he found it himself. I believe the same thing of a nation.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The New Nationalism,” speech, Osawatomie, Kansas (31 Aug 1910)
(Source)
Of all the questions which can come before this nation, short of the actual preservation of its existence in a great war, there is none which compares in importance with the great central task of leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us, and training them into a better race to inhabit the land and pass it on. Conservation is a great moral issue for it involves the patriotic duty of insuring the safety and continuance of the nation.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The New Nationalism,” speech, Osawatomie, Kansas (31 Aug 1910)
(Source)
The fundamental thing to do for every man is to give him a chance to reach a place in which he will make the greatest possible contribution to the public welfare. Understand what I say there. Give him a chance, not push him up if he will not be pushed. Help any man who stumbles; if he lies down, it is a poor job to try to carry him; but if he is a worthy man, try your best to see that he gets a chance to show the worth that is in him.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The New Nationalism,” speech, Osawatomie, Kansas (31 Aug 1910)
(Source)
[I]n the interest of the working man himself we need to set our faces like flint against mob-violence just as against corporate greed; against violence and injustice and lawlessness by wage-workers just as much as against lawless cunning and greed and selfish arrogance of employers. If I could ask but one thing of my fellow countrymen, my request would be that, whenever they go in for reform, they remember the two sides, and that they always exact justice from one side as much as from the other. I have small use for the public servant who can always see and denounce the corruption of the capitalist, but who cannot persuade himself, especially before elections, to say a word about lawless mob-violence. And I have equally small use for the man, be he a judge on the bench, or editor of a great paper, or wealthy and influential private citizen, who can see clearly enough and denounce the lawlessness of mob-violence, but whose eyes are closed so that he is blind when the question is one of corruption in business on a gigantic scale.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The New Nationalism,” speech, Osawatomie, Kansas (31 Aug 1910)
(Source)
If the reactionary man, who thinks of nothing but the rights of property, could have his way, he would bring about a revolution; and one of my chief fears in connection with progress comes because I do not want to see our people, for lack of proper leadership, compelled to follow men whose intentions are excellent, but whose eyes are a little too wild to make it really safe to trust them.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The New Nationalism,” speech, Osawatomie, Kansas (31 Aug 1910)
(Source)
I believe in shaping the ends of government to protect property as well as human welfare. Normally, and in the long run, the ends are the same; but whenever the alternative must be faced, I am for men and not for property, as you were in the Civil War. I am far from underestimating the importance of dividends; but I rank dividends below human character.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The New Nationalism,” speech, Osawatomie, Kansas (31 Aug 1910)
(Source)
Of all species of silliness the silliest is the assertion sometimes made that the woman whose primary lifework is taking care of her home and children is somehow a “parasite woman.” It is such a ridiculous in version of the truth that it ought not to be necessary even to allude to it.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The Parasite Woman,” Metropolitan (May 1916)
(Source)
Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The Square Deal,” Labor Day speech, New York State Agricultural Association, Syracuse (7 Sep 1903)
We must act upon the motto of all for each and each for all. There must be ever present in our minds the fundamental truth that in a republic such as ours the only safety is to stand neither for nor against any man because he is rich or because he is poor, because he is engaged in one occupation or another, because he works with his brains or because he works with his hands. We must treat each man on his worth and merits as a man. We must see that each is given a square deal, because he is entitled to no more and should receive no less.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The Square Deal,” Labor Day speech, New York State Agricultural Association, Syracuse (7 Sep 1903)
Full text.
It is all-essential to the continuance of our healthy national life that we should recognize this community of interest among our people. The welfare of each of us is dependent fundamentally upon the welfare of all of us, and therefore in public life that man is the best representative of each of us who seeks to do good to each by doing good to all; in other words, whose endeavor it is not to represent any special class and promote merely that class’s selfish interests, but to represent all true and honest men of all sections and all classes and to work for their interests by working for our common country.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The Square Deal,” Labor Day speech, New York State Agricultural Association, Syracuse (7 Sep 1903)
Full text
In the final result, it mattered not one whit whether the movement was in favor of one class or of another. The outcome was equally fatal, whether the country fell into the hands of a wealthy oligarchy which exploited the poor or whether it fell under the domination of a turbulent mob which plundered the rich. In both cases there resulted violent alternations between tyranny and disorder, and a final complete loss of liberty to all citizens — destruction in the end overtaking the class which had for the moment been victorious as well as that which had momentarily been defeated. The death-knell of the Republic had rung as soon as the active power became lodged in the hands of those who sought, not to do justice to all citizens, rich and poor alike, but to stand for one special class and for its interests as opposed to the interests of others.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The Square Deal,” Labor Day speech, New York State Agricultural Association, Syracuse (7 Sep 1903)
Full text.
Far better it is to dare mighty things, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those who neither enjoy much or suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The Strenuous Life,” speech, Hamilton Club, Chicago (10 Apr 1899)
The twentieth century looms before us big with the fate of many nations. If we stand idly by, if we seek merely swollen, slothful ease and ignoble peace, if we shrink from the hard contests where men must win at hazard of their lives and at the risk of all they hold dear, then the bolder and stronger peoples will pass us by, and will win for themselves the domination of the world.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The Strenuous Life,” speech, Hamilton Club, Chicago (10 Apr 1899)
Full text.
I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The Strenuous Life,” speech, Hamilton Club, Chicago (10 Apr 1899)
Full text.
In the last analysis a healthy state can exist only when the men and women who make it up lead clean, vigorous, healthy lives; when the children are so trained that they shall endeavor, not to shirk difficulties, but to overcome them; not to seek ease, but to know how to wrest triumph from toil and risk.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The Strenuous Life,” speech, Hamilton Club, Chicago (10 Apr 1899)
(Source)
If you are rich and are worth your salt, you will teach your sons that though they may have leisure, it is not to be spent in idleness; for wisely used leisure merely means that those who possess it, being free from the necessity of working for their livelihood, are all the more bound to carry on some kind of non-remunerative work in science, in letters, in art, in exploration, in historical research-work of the type we most need in this country, the successful carrying out of which reflects most honor upon the nation.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The Strenuous Life,” speech, Hamilton Club, Chicago (10 Apr 1899)
(Source)
Let us therefore boldly face the life of strife, resolute to do our duty well and manfully; resolute to uphold righteousness by deed and by word; resolute to be both honest and brave, to serve high ideals, yet to use practical methods. Above all, let us shrink from no strife, moral or physical, within or without the nation, provided we are certain that the strife is justified, for it is only through strife, through hard and dangerous endeavor, that we shall ultimately win the goal of true national greatness.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The Strenuous Life,” speech, Hamilton Club, Chicago (10 Apr 1899)
(Source)
To love one’s country above all others is in no way incompatible with respecting and wishing well to all others.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The Two Americas” (20 May 1901)
There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains. To put an end to it will be neither a short nor an easy task, but it can be done.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
“The New Nationalism,” speech, Osawatomie, Kansas (31 Aug 1910)
(Source)
The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
(Attributed)
To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
(Attributed)
The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
(Attributed)
Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
(Attributed)
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ’em, “Certainly, I can!” Then get busy and find out how to do it.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
(Attributed)
In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
(Attributed)
Get acting, do things; be sane; don’t fritter away your time; create; act; take a place wherever you are and be somebody; get action ….
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
(Attributed)
To the Rough Riders, on their mustering out in 1908. In Eugene Thwing, The Life and Meaning of Theodore Roosevelt, ch. 5 "Rough Riders and Spaniards" (1919). Full text.
Conduct [is] the ultimate test of the worth of a belief.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
(Attributed)
The most successful politician is he who says what everybody else is thinking most often and in the loudest voice.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
(Attributed)
Often attributed, but rarely sourced. It appears to be first quoted as a personal anecdote by Alfred George Gardiner, The Pillars of Society (1927)
Yes, Haven, most of us enjoy preaching, and I’ve got such a bully pulpit!
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
(Attributed)
In George Haven Putnam, The Works of Theodore Roosevelt, Vol. 9, Introduction (1926). Roosevelt's reply when, during his first presidential term, Putnam accused him of tending to preach to people.
Comparison is the thief of joy.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
(Attributed)
To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
(Spurious)
Frequently attributed to Roosevelt but unsourced; first appears in the 2000s. See here for more discussion.
If I must choose between righteousness and peace I choose righteousness.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
America and the World War (1915)
Unrestricted individualism spells ruin to the individual himself. But so does the elimination of individualism, whether by law or custom.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
An Autobiography, ch. 5 (1913)
The idea that our natural resources were inexhaustible still obtained, and there was as yet no real knowledge of their extent and condition. The relation of the conservation of natural resources to the problems of National welfare and National efficiency had not yet dawned on the public mind. The reclamation of arid public lands in the West was still a matter for private enterprise alone; and our magnificent river system, with its superb possibilities for public usefulness, was dealt with by the National Government not as a unit, but as a disconnected series of pork-barrel problems, whose only real interest was in their effect on the reëlection or defeat of a Congressman here and there — a theory which, I regret to say, still obtains.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
An Autobiography, ch. 11 (1913)
Our worst revolutionaries today are those reactionaries who do not see and will not admit that there is any need for change.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
An Autobiography, ch. 13 (1913)
There were all kinds of things of which I was afraid at first, from grizzly bears to “mean” horses and gunfighters, but by acting as if I was not afraid, I gradually ceased to be afraid.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
An Autobiography, ch. 2 (1913)
Among the wise and high-minded people who in self-respecting and genuine fashion strive earnestly for peace, there are the foolish fanatics always to be found in such a movement and always discrediting it — the men who form the lunatic fringe in all reform movements.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
An Autobiography, ch. 7 “The War of American and the Unready” (1913)
I abhor unjust war. I abhor injustice and bullying by the strong at the expense of the weak, whether among nations or individuals. I abhor violence and bloodshed. I believe that war should never be resorted to when, or so long as, it is honorably possible to avoid it. I respect all men and women who from high motives and with sanity and self-respect do all they can to avert war. I advocate preparation for war in order to avert war; and I should never advocate war unless it were the only alternative to dishonor.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
An Autobiography, ch. 7 “The War of American and the Unready” (1913)
We … hold the just balance and set ourselves as resolutely against improper corporate influence on the one hand as against demagogy and mob rule on the other.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
An Autobiography, ch. 8 “The New York Governorship” (1913)
Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
An Autobiography, ch. 9 “Outdoors and Indoors” (1913)
Variants:
- "Do what you can where you are with what you've got."
- "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."
Actually attributed by Roosevelt to "Squire Bill Widener, of Widener's Valley, Virginia" as one's "duty in life," but usually misattributed directly to Roosevelt.
There are many kinds of success in life worth having. It is exceedingly interesting and attractive to be a successful business man, or railroad man, or farmer, or a successful lawyer or doctor; or a writer, or a President, or a ranchman, or the colonel of a fighting regiment, or to kill grizzly bears and lions. But for unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly makes all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
An Autobiography, ch. 9 “Outdoors and Indoors” (1913)
Americans learn only from catastrophes and not from experience.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
Autobiography (1913)
Of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth, the tyranny of a plutocracy.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
Autobiography, ch 22 (Mem. Ed.) (1913)
Cowardice is the unpardonable sin in a man.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
Fear God and Take Your Own Part, ch. 6 (1916)
Full text.
No man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his well-being, to risk his body, to risk his life, in a great cause.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
Harvard Advocate (Dec 1915)
Our loyalty is due entirely to the United States. It is due to the President only and exactly to the degree in which he efficiently serves the United States. It is our duty to support him when he serves the United States well. It is our duty to oppose him when he serves it badly. This is true about Mr. Wilson now and it has been true about all our Presidents in the past. It is our duty at all times to tell the truth about the President and about every one else, save in the cases where to tell the truth at the moment would benefit the public enemy.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
Kansas City Star (7 May 1918)
Reprinted in "Lincoln and Free Speech," The Great Adventure (1926).
The United States of America has not the option as to whether it will or it will not play a great part in the world … It must play a great part. All that it can decide is whether it will play that part well or badly. And it can play it badly if it adopts the role either of the coward or of the bully. Nor will it help it in the end to avoid either part if it play the other. It must avoid both. Democratic America can be true to itself, true to the great cause of freedom and justice, only if it shows itself ready and willing to resent wrong from the strong, and scrupulously desirous of doing generous justice to both strong and weak.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
Outlook (1 Apr 1911)
I believe in property rights; I believe that normally the rights of property and humanity coincide; but sometimes they conflict, and when this is so, I put human rights above property rights.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
Outlook (15 Nov 1913)
The three great classes of the American community are the farmers, the wage-workers, and the business men, big and little, wholesale and retail. It is essential that all three shall prosper. It is essential that there shall be a more equitable division of prosperity than has been the case in the past. This prosperity can only be lasting if it is based on justice, and it cannot be based on justice unless the small man, the farmer, the mechanic, the wage-worker generally, the clerk on a salary, the small business man, the retail dealer, have their rights guaranteed. If these men have their rights guaranteed, then they will prosper, and the prosperity will extend to the big men.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
Progressive Principles, ch. 2 “A Charter of Business Prosperity” (1913)
(Source)
Fundamentally, our opponents who say they are for prosperity differ from us in wishing to see the prosperity come to the big man first and then drip down through to the little man. Now, I am just as anxious to see the big man prosper as they are, but I do not believe he can prosper in any really enduring manner unless under conditions which ensure to the small men their fair chance.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
Progressive Principles, ch. 2 “A Charter of Business Prosperity” (1913)
(Source)
Black care rarely sits beside the rider whose pace is fast enough.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)
Ranch Life and the Hunting-Trail, ch. 4 “The Round Up” (1896)
Full text.