Top 780 Quotes & Sayings by Theodore Roosevelt - Page 2

Germany has reduced savagery to a science, and this great war for the victorious peace of justice must go on until the German cancer is cut clean out of the world body.

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

Some men can live up to their loftiest ideals without ever going higher than a basement.

A typical vice of American politics is the avoidance of saying anything real on real issues.

The most practical kind of politics is the politics of decency.

The human body has two ends on it: one to create with and one to sit on. Sometimes people get their ends reversed. When this happens they need a kick in the seat of the pants.

There has never yet been a man in our history who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering.

Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.

I am only an average man but, by George, I work harder at it than the average man.

The American people abhor a vacuum.

The most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often in the loudest voice.

For unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison.

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

No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expedience.

Probably the greatest harm done by vast wealth is the harm that we of moderate means do ourselves when we let the vices of envy and hatred enter deep into our own natures.

Wars are, of course, as a rule to be avoided; but they are far better than certain kinds of peace.

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president... is morally treasonable to the American public.

Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been effort stored up in the past.

I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life.

It is difficult to make our material condition better by the best law, but it is easy enough to ruin it by bad laws.

No great intellectual thing was ever done by great effort.

It is essential that there should be organization of labor. This is an era of organization. Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize.

You can't choose your potential, but you can choose to fulfill it.

The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything. Do not be afraid to make mistakes providing you do not make the same one twice.

It is always better to be an original than an imitation.

There should be at least ten times the number of rifles in the country as there are now.

Any man who tries to excite class hatred, sectional hate, hate of creeds, any kind of hatred in our community, though he may affect to do it in the interest of the class he is addressing, is in the long run with absolute certainly that class's own worst enemy.

This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in.

Nothing worth having was ever achieved without effort.

A good shot must necessarily be a good man since the essence of good marksmanship is self-control and self-control is the essential quality of a good man.

Our 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.

Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of today.

Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children's children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.

Do Something Now. If not you, who? If not here, where? If not now, when?

Be practical as well as generous in your ideals. Keep your eyes on the stars, but remember to keep your feet on the ground.

No man who is not willing to bear arms and to fight for his rights can give a good reason why he should be entitled to the privilege of living in a free community.

Knowing what's right doesn't mean much unless you do what's right.

A nation that still needs to distinguish between stealing an election, and stealing a new pair of shoes, is not completely civilized yet.

There is but one answer to terrorism and it is best delivered with a Winchester rifle.

Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds.

The worst lesson that can be taught to a man is to rely upon others and to whine over his sufferings

There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities.

A soft, easy life is not worth living, if it impairs the fibre of brain and heart and muscle. We must dare to be great; and we must realize that greatness is the fruit of toil and sacrifice and high 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.

Most of us tiptoe through life in order to make it safely to death.

Courage, hard work, self-mastery, and intelligent effort are all essential to successful life.

He who makes no mistakes makes no progress.

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.

Let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out.

You cannot create prosperity by law. Sustained thrift, industry, application, intelligence, are the only things that ever do, or ever will, create prosperity. But you can very easily destroy prosperity by law.

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 them 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 at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.

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.

There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.

With a great moral issue involved, neutrality does not serve righteousness; for to be neutral between right and wrong is to serve wrong.

The bosses of the Democratic party and the bosses of the Republican party alike have a closer grip than ever before on the party machines in the States and in the Nation. This crooked control of both the old parties by the beneficiaries of political and business privilege renders it hopeless to expect any far-reaching and fundamental service from either.

Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… 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.

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.

It is necessary for the welfare of the nation that men's lives be based on the principles of the Bible. No man, educated or uneducated, can afford to be ignorant of the Bible.

Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president.

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.

All contributions by corporations to any political committee or for any political purpose should be forbidden by law