Theodore Roosevelt Quotes
Most popular Theodore Roosevelt Quotes
Don't spread patriotism too thin.
The light has gone out of my life.
Don't foul, don't flinch—hit the line hard.
Don't flinch, don't foul, hit the line hard!
Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time.
Believe you can and you're the halfway there.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.
Nine-tenths of wisdom consists in being wise in time.
Obedience of the law is demanded; not asked as a favor.
We must treat each man on his worth and merits as a man.
Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.
I do not in the least object to a sport because it is rough.
No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expedience.
Aggressive fighting for the right is the greatest sport in the world.
Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive.
Get action. Seize the moment. Man was never intended to become an oyster.
In life, as in a football game, the principle to follow is: hit the line hard.
Perhaps there is no more important component of character than steadfast resolution.
A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy.
The noblest of all forms of government is self-government, but it is the most difficult.
I think there is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head.
Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
Instruction in things moral is most necessary to the making of the highest type of citizenship.
I think that there is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head.
Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.
The most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often in the loudest voice.
A President has a great chance; his position is almost that of a king and a prime minister rolled into one.
When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer "Present" or "Not guilty."
I entirely appreciate loyalty to one's friends, but loyalty to the cause of justice and honor stands above it.
No man is above the law and no man is below it: nor do we ask any man's permission when we ask him to obey it.
Every right-minded man utterly despises a coward in private life. Cowardice is the unpardonable sin in a man.
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.
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.
No man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his body, to risk his well-being, to risk his life, in a great cause.
In short, in life, as in a football game, the principle to follow is: Hit the line hard; don't foul and don't shirk, but hit the line hard!
The life of duty, not the life of mere ease or mere pleasure; that is the kind of life which makes the great man, as it makes the great nation.
People ask the difference between a leader and a boss ... The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives.
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.
It is far more important that they should conduct their business affairs decently than that they should spend the surplus of their fortunes in philanthropy.
The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.
The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.
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.
There is no moral difference between gambling at cards or in lotteries or on the race track and gambling in the stock market. One method is just as pernicious to the body politic as the other kind.
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 not victory nor defeat.
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 certainty that class's own worst enemy.
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.
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.
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, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in 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 fails while daring greatly....
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 errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause.
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.
Perhaps there is no more important component of character than steadfast resolution. The boy who is going to make a great man, or is going to count in any way in after life, must make up his mind not merely to overcome a thousand obstacles, but to win in spite of a thousand repulses or defeats.
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 errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in 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 fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
