Top 100 Theodore Roosevelt Quotes
#1. The forces that tend for evil are great and terrible, but the forces of truth and love and courage and honesty and generosity and sympathy are also stronger than ever before.
Theodore Roosevelt
#2. Nothing should be permitted to stand in the way of the preservation of the forests, and it is criminal to permit individuals to purchase a little gain for themselves through the destruction of forests when this destruction is fatal to the well-being of the whole country in the future.
Theodore Roosevelt
#3. Some men can live up to their loftiest ideals without ever going higher than a basement.
Theodore Roosevelt
#4. The best lesson that any people can learn is that there is no patent cure-all which will make the body politic perfect, and that any man who is able glibly to answer every question as to how to deal with the evils of the body politic is at best a foolish visionary and at worst an evil-minded quack.
Theodore Roosevelt
#5. When liberty becomes license, some form of one-man power is not far distant.
Theodore Roosevelt
#6. We want the active and zealous help of every man far-sighted enough to realize the importance from the standpoint of the nation's welfare in the future of preserving the forests.
Theodore Roosevelt
#7. When we control business in the public interest we are also bound to encourage it in the public interest or it will be a bad thing for everybody and worst of all for those on whose behalf the control is nominally exercised.
Theodore Roosevelt
#8. We must abandon definitely the laissez-faire theory of political economy, and fearlessly champion a system of increased Governmental control, paying no heed to the cries of the worthy people who denounce this as Socialistic.
Theodore Roosevelt
#9. It is time for us now as a nation to exercise the same reasonable foresight in dealing with our great natural resources that would be shown by any prudent man in conserving and widely using the property which contains the assurance of well-being for himself and his children.
Theodore Roosevelt
#10. We wish peace, but we wish the peace of justice, the peace of righteousness. We wish it because we think it is right and not because we are afraid.
Theodore Roosevelt
#11. Of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth.
Theodore Roosevelt
#12. A good Navy is not a provocation to war. It is the surest guaranty of peace.
Theodore Roosevelt
#13. I think there is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head.
Theodore Roosevelt
#16. Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don't have the strength.
Theodore Roosevelt
#17. Our words must be judged by our deeds; and in striving for a lofty ideal we must use practical methods; and if we cannot attain all at one leap, we must advance towards it step by step, reasonably content so long as we do actually make some progress in the right direction.
Theodore Roosevelt
#18. My hat's in the ring. The fight is on and I'm stripped to the buff.
Theodore Roosevelt
#19. No man should receive a dollar unless that dollar has been fairly earned.
Theodore Roosevelt
#20. Success, the real success, does not depend upon the position you hold but upon how you carry yourself in that position.
Theodore Roosevelt
#23. 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.
Theodore Roosevelt
#24. The wild life of today is not ours to do with as we please. The original stock was given to us in trust for the benefit both of the present and the future. We must render an accounting of this trust to those who come after us.
Theodore Roosevelt
#25. The country is the place for children, and if not the country, a city small enough so that one can get out into the country.
Theodore Roosevelt
#26. The old parties are husks, with no real soul within either, divided on artificial lines, boss-ridden and privilege-controlled, each a jumble of incongruous elements, and neither daring to speak out wisely and fearlessly on what should be said on the vital issues of the day.
Theodore Roosevelt
#27. 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.
Theodore Roosevelt
#29. There can be no life without change, and to be afraid of what is different or unfamiliar is to be afraid of life.
Theodore Roosevelt
#30. Black care rarely sits behind the rider whose pace is fast enough.
Theodore Roosevelt
#32. A man who has never gone to school may steal a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.
Theodore Roosevelt
#33. The man who really counts in the world is the doer, not the mere critic
the man who actually does the work, even if roughly and imperfectly, not the man who only talks or writes about how it ought to be done.
Theodore Roosevelt
#34. We have duties to others, and duties to ourselves, and we cannot shirk either.
Theodore Roosevelt
#35. Water is a commodity not by any means to be found everywhere ... When found, it is more than likely to be bad, being either from a bitter alkaline pool, or from a hole in a creek, so muddy that it can only be called liquid by courtesy.
Theodore Roosevelt
#36. The mass of the American people are most emphatically not in the deplorable condition of which you speak.
Theodore Roosevelt
#37. It is impossible to win the great prizes of life without running risks, and the greatest of all prizes are those connected with the home.
Theodore Roosevelt
#38. There is something to be said for government by a great aristocracy which has furnished leaders to the nation in peace and war for generations; even a Democrat like myself must admit this.
Theodore Roosevelt
#40. 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
#41. 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
#42. It is not the critic who counts ... The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena ...
Theodore Roosevelt
#45. Anything that encourages pauperism, anything that relaxes the manly fiber and lowers self-respect, is an unmixed evil.
Theodore Roosevelt
#46. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care
Theodore Roosevelt
#47. Aggressive fighting for the right is the noblest sport the world affords.
Theodore Roosevelt
#48. Give the brethren a chance to do something, anything, no matter how small or unimportant. A brother convinced that he is helpful is enthusiastic.
Theodore Roosevelt
#50. The majority in a democracy has no more right to tyrannize over a minority than, under a different system, the latter would to oppress the former.
Theodore Roosevelt
#51. From its origin to the present hour, in all its vicissitudes, Masonry has been the steady unwearing friend of man.
Theodore Roosevelt
#52. Do nothing to mar its grandeur ... keep it for your children, your children's children, and all who come after you, as the one great sight which every American should see.
Theodore Roosevelt
#53. To waste, to destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed.
Theodore Roosevelt
#54. 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.
Theodore Roosevelt
#55. 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.
Theodore Roosevelt
#56. 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
#57. I have often been afraid, but I would not give in to it. I made myself act as though I was not afraid and gradually my fear disappeared.
Theodore Roosevelt
#58. The extermination of the buffalo has been a veritable tragedy of the animal world.
Theodore Roosevelt
#59. We must hold to a rigid accountability those public servants who show unfaithfulness to the interests of the nation or inability to rise to the high level of the new demands upon our strength and our resources.
Theodore Roosevelt
#60. The name Roosevelt has this legendary force in our country at this time.
Theodore Roosevelt
#61. Character is far more important than intellect in making a man a good citizen or successful at his calling- meaning by character not only such qualities as honesty and truthfulness, but courage, perseverance and self-reliance.
Theodore Roosevelt
#62. I have often thought that unselfishness combined in one word more of the teachings of the Bible than any other in the language.
Theodore Roosevelt
#63. There can be no greater issue than that of conservation in this country.
Theodore Roosevelt
#64. I violate no secret when I say that one of the greatest values in Masonry is that it affords an opportunity for men of all walks of life to meet on common ground where all men are equal and have one common interest.
Theodore Roosevelt
#65. We are not building this country of ours for a day. It is to last through the ages.
Theodore Roosevelt
#66. I stand for the square deal. I mean not merely that I stand for fair play under the present rules of the game, but that I stand for having those rules changed so as to work for a more substantial equality of opportunity and of reward for equally good service.
Theodore Roosevelt
#68. I am only an average man, but by George, I work harder at it than the average man.
Theodore Roosevelt
#70. After the war, and until the day of his death, his position on almost every public question was either mischievous or ridiculous, and usually both.
Theodore Roosevelt
#71. 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
#72. The greatest gift life has to offer is the opportunity to work hard at work worth doing.
Theodore Roosevelt
#73. Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die; and none are fit to die who have shrunk from the joy of life and the duty of life. Both life and death are parts of the same Great Adventure.
Theodore Roosevelt
#74. The liar is no whit better than the thief, and if his mendacity takes the form of slander he may be worse than most thieves. It puts a premium upon knavery untruthfully to attack an honest man, or even with hysterical exaggeration to assail a bad man with untruth.
Theodore Roosevelt
#75. Laissez-faire, says the professor, when it often means bind and gag that the strongest may work his will. It is a plea for the survival of the fittest - for the strongest male to take possession of the herd by a process of extermination.
Theodore Roosevelt
#76. The duties are even more important than the rights; and in the long run I think that the reward is ampler and greater for duty well done, than for the insistence upon individual rights.
Theodore Roosevelt
#77. A true forest is not merely a storehouse full of wood, but, as it were, a factory of wood.
Theodore Roosevelt
#78. Honesty first; then courage; then brains - and all are indispensable.
Theodore Roosevelt
#79. It is true of the Nation, as of the individual, that the greatest doer must also be a great dreamer.
Theodore Roosevelt
#80. The Northwest is essentially a national domain; it is fitting that it should be, as it is, not only by position but by feeling, the heart of the nation.
Theodore Roosevelt
#81. Just as Lincoln got contradictory advice from the extremists of both sides ... so now I have to guard myself against the extremists of both sides.
Theodore Roosevelt
#82. In the long run, the most unpleasant truth is a safer companion than a pleasant falsehood.
Theodore Roosevelt
#83. I always keep my weather eye on the opposition of my seventh house Moon to my first house Mars.
Theodore Roosevelt
#84. The power of the
journalist is great, but he is entitled neither to respect nor admiration because of
that power unless it is used aright.
Theodore Roosevelt
#85. There is need of a sound body, and even more need of a sound mind. But above mind and above body stands character-the sum of those qualities which we mean when we speak of a man's force and courage, of his good faith and sense of honor.
Theodore Roosevelt
#86. There are those who believe that a new modernity demands a new morality. What they fail to consider is the harsh reality that there is no such thing as a new morality. There is only one morality . All else is immorality.
Theodore Roosevelt
#87. The United States does not have a choice as to whether or not is will or will not play a great part in the world. Fate has made that choice for us. The only question is whether we will play the part well or badly.
Theodore Roosevelt
#90. Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot, but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.
Theodore Roosevelt
#93. 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
#94. The great virtue of my radicalism lies in the fact that I am perfectly ready, if necessary, to be radical on the conservative side.
Theodore Roosevelt
#95. All for each, and each for all, is a good motto; but only on condition that each works with might and main to so maintain himself as not to be a burden to others.
Theodore Roosevelt
#96. 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
#99. Fertile plains, every foot of them tilled, are of the first necessity; but great natural playgrounds of mountain, forest, cliff-walled lake, and brawling brook are also necessary to the full and many-sided development of a fine race.
Theodore Roosevelt
#100. It's not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of the deeds could have done better.
Theodore Roosevelt
Famous Authors
Popular Topics
Scroll to Top
