Theodore Roosevelt Quotes

America
"Thrice happy is the nation that has a glorious history. Far better it 
is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though 
checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who 
neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray
twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat." 
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:"The Strenuous Life"

"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
Source:Letter to John Hay, American Ambassador to the Court of St.
James, London, Written in Washington, DC, June 7, 1897

"There is not in all America a more dangerous trait than the 
deification of mere smartness unaccompanied by any sense of moral 
responsibility."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:Abilene, KS, May 2, 1903

Arena
"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 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, because there is no effort without 
error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great 
devotions, who spends himself for 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 he fails while daring greatly, so that his
place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither
victory nor defeat."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

Armed
"Let us speak courteously, deal fairly, and keep ourselves armed and
ready."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:San Francisco, CA, May 13, 1903

Backing It Up
I want to see you shoot the way you shout.
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:Speech Madison Square, Oct 1917

Business
We draw the line againt misconduct, not against wealth.
Theodore Roosevelt, 1902
Source:The Supreme Court in American History pp91

Children
"It is no use to preach to [children] if you do not act decently 
yourself."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:Speech to Holy Name Society, Oyster Bay, August 16, 1903

"Alone of human beings the good and wise mother stands on a plane of 
equal honor with the bravest soldier; for she has gladly gone down to 
the brink of the chasm of darkness to bring back the children in whose
hands rests the future of the years. "
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:The Great Adventure, 1918

Civilized
"No people is wholly civilized where a distinction is
drawn between stealing an office and stealing a purse."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Theodore.Roosevelt.Quote.71F2

Conservation
"There can be no greater issue than that of conservation in this 
country."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:Confession of Faith Speech, Progressive National Convention, 
Chicago, IL, August 6, 1912



"We of an older generation can get along with what we have, though with 
growing hardship; but in your full manhood and womanhood you will want 
what nature once so bountifully supplied and man so thoughtlessly 
destroyed; and because of that want you will reproach us, not for what 
we have used, but for what we have wasted...So any nation which in its
youth lives only for the day, reaps without sowing, and consumes 
without husbanding, must expect the penalty of the prodigal whose labor 
could with difficulty find him the bare means of life."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:"Arbor Day - A Message to the School-Children of the United 
States" April 15, 1907

"Optimism is a good characteristic, but if carried to an excess, it 
becomes foolishness. We are prone to speak of the resources of this 
country as inexhaustible; this is not so."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:Seventh Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1907

"The object of government is the welfare of the people." "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."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:"The New Nationalism" speech, Osawatomie, Kansas, August 31,
1910

"This country will not be a permanently good place for any of us to 
live in unless we make it a reasonably good place for all of us to live 
in."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:Chicago, IL, June 17, 1912

Country
"A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good 
enough to be given a square deal afterwards. More than that no man is
entitled, and less than that no man shall have."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:Speech to veterans, Springfield, IL, July 4, 1903

"This country has nothing to fear from the crooked man who fails. We 
put him in jail. It is the crooked man who succeeds who is a threat to 
this country." 
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:Memphis, TN, October 25, 1905

Criticism
"Criticism is necessary and useful; it is often indispensable; but it
can never take the place of action, or be even a poor substitute for 
it. The function of the mere critic is of very subordinate usefulness.
It is the doer of deeds who actually counts in the battle for life, and
not the man who looks on and says how the fight ought to be fought,
without himself sharing the stress and the danger." 
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:The Works of Theodore Roosevelt - National Edition

Dreamer
"It is true of the Nation, as of the individual, that the greatest doer
must also be a great dreamer."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:Berkeley, CA, 1911

Education
"To educate a man in mind, and not in morals,
is to educate a menace to society."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Theodore.Roosevelt.Quote.B05A

Expediency
No man is justified in doing evil on the grounds of expediency.
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:The Strenuous Life

Fear
"There were all kinds of things I was afraid of at first, ranging from 
grizzly bears to 'mean' horses and gun-fighters; but by acting as if I 
was not afraid I gradually ceased to be afraid."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:An Autobiography, 1913

Government
"The bulk of government is not legislation but administration." "Men 
can never escape being governed. Either they must govern themselves or
they must submit to being governed by others."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:Jamestown, VA, April 26, 1907

Greatness
"It is by no means necessary that a great nation should always stand at 
the heroic level. But no nation has the root of greatness in it unless 
in time of need it can rise to the heroic mood."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:Fear God and Take Your Own Part, 1916

Helping Hand
"There is not a man of us who does not at times need a helping hand to 
be stretched out to him, and then shame upon him who will not stretch 
out the helping hand to his brother."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:Pasadena, CA, May 8, 1903

Hit
"Don't hit at all if you can help it; don't hit a man if you can 
possibly avoid it; but if you do hit him, put him to sleep."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:New York City, February 17, 1899 

Honesty
"We cannot afford to differ on the question of honesty
if we expect our republic permanently to endure.
Honesty is not so much a credit as an absolute prerequisite
to efficient service to the public.
Unless a man is honest, we have no right to keep him in public life;
it matters not how brilliant his capacity."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Theodore.Roosevelt.Quote.816C

Just the Way It Is
When one is intensely interested in a certain cause, the
tendency is to associate particularly with those
who take the same view.
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:The Rough Riders

Labor Unions
It is essential that there should be organizations of labor. This is an era
of organization. Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize.
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:Speech, Oct 14, 1912

I am a believer in unions. I am an honorary member of one union. But the union 
must obey the law, just as the corporation must obey the law.
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:Speech May 10, 1905

Law
"No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any 
man's permission when we require him to obey it. Obedience to the law 
is demanded as a right; not asked as a favor."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:Third Annual Message to Congress, December 7, 1903

Leader and a Boss
People ask the difference between a leader and a boss....
The leader leads, and the boss drives.
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:Speech Oct 24, 1910

Living
"The worst of all fears is the fear of living."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:An Autobiography, 1913

"I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life; I
have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:Des Moines, Iowa, November 4, 1910

Mankind 
"Let the watchwords of all our people be the old familiar watchwords of 
honesty, decency, fair-dealing, and commonsense."... "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.""The welfare of each of us is dependent fundamentally 
upon the welfare of all of us."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:New York State Fair, Syracuse, September 7, 1903

"There are good men and bad men of all nationalities, creeds and 
colors; and if this world of ours is ever to become what we hope some
day it may become, it must be by the general recognition that the man's
heart and soul, the man's worth and actions, determine his standing."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:Letter, Oyster Bay, NY, September 1, 1903

Muck
"Men with the muckrake are often indispensable to the well-being of 
society, but only if they know when to stop raking the muck." "An
epidemic in indiscriminate assault upon character does not good, but 
very great harm." "There should be relentless exposure of and attack 
upon every evil practice, whether in politics, in business, or in 
social life. I hail as a benefactor every writer or speaker, every man 
who, on the platform, or in book, magazine or newspaper, with merciless 
severity makes such attack, provided always that he in his turn 
remembers that the attack is of use only if it is absolutely truthful."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:Washington, DC, April 14, 1906

"No man can lead a public career really worth leading, no man can act 
with rugged independence in serious crises, nor strike at great abuses, 
nor afford to make powerful and unscrupulous foes, if he is himself 
vulnerable in his private character."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:An Autobiography, 1913

Play Fair
"To borrow a simile from the football field, we believe that men must
play fair, but that there must be no shirking, and that the success can 
only come to the player who 'hits the line hard.' "
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay, NY, October 1897



Power
Power invariably means both responsibility and danger.
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:NY Times Mag, Oct 27, 1957

President
"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 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
Source:"Roosevelt in the Kansas City Star",May 7, 1918



"I don't think any President ever enjoyed himself more than I did. 
Moreover, I don't think any ex-President ever enjoyed himself more."... 
"Success - the real success - does not depend upon the position you 
hold, but upon how you carry yourself in that position."
University of Cambridge, England, May 26, 1910 

Prise
Far and away the best prise that life offers is the chance to work 
hard at work worth doing.
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:Labor Day speech, 1903

Speak Softly 
"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far"
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:Nathan Miller in his book "Theodore Roosevelt, A Life"

Square Deal
When I say I believe in a square deal I do not mean to give every 
man the best hand. If the cards come do not come to any man, or if 
they do come, and he has not got the power to play them, that is 
his affair. All I mean is that there shall be no 
crookedness in the dealing.
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:Speech, Dallas, Apr 5, 1905

Time
Nine-tenths of widom is being wise in time.
Teddy Roosevelt
Source:Speech, Lincoln, Neb, 1917

Un-American
"To divide along the lines of section or caste or creed is un-American."
Theodore Roosevelt
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Theodore.Roosevelt.Quote.7294

Vote
"A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of 
the user."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:An Autobiography, 1913

Womens Rights 
"Viewed purely in the abstract, I think there can be no question that 
women should have equal rights with men."..."Especially as regards the 
laws relating to marriage there should be the most absolute equality 
between the two sexes. I do not think the woman should assume the man's 
name."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:"The Practicability of Equalizing Men and Women before the Law"
Senior thesis at Harvard, 1880

"Much can be done by law towards putting women on a footing of complete
and entire equal rights with man - including the right to vote, the 
right to hold and use property, and the right to enter any profession 
she desires on the same terms as the man."..."Women should have free
access to every field of labor which they care to enter, and when their 
work is as valuable as that of a man it should be paid as highly."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:An Autobiography, 1913

"Working women have the same need to protection that working men have;
the ballot is as necessary for one class as to the other; we do not
believe that with the two sexes there is identity of function; but we 
do believe there should be equality of right."
Theodore Roosevelt
Source:Speech, National Convention of the Progressive Party, Chicago, 
IL, August 6, 1912

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