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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