Quotes by Theodore Roosevelt

“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.”

“A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.”

“A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.”

“A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.”

“Absence and death are the same—only that in death there is no suffering.”

“Americanism is a question of principle, of idealism, of character. It is not a matter of birthplace, or creed, or line of descent.”

“Appraisals are where you get together with your team leader and agree what an outstanding member of the team you are, how much your contribution has been valued, what massive potential you have and, in recognition of all this, would you mind having your salary halved.”

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

“Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.”

“Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.”

“Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don't have the strength.”

“Courtesy is as much a mark of a gentleman as courage.”

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

“Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.”

“Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country.”

“Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”

“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”

“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.”

“Get action. Seize the moment. Man was never intended to become an oyster.”

“Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.”

“I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!”

“I don't pity any man who does hard work worth doing. I admire him. I pity the creature who does not work, at whichever end of the social scale he may regard himself as being.”

“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.”

“I think there is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head.”

“I took the Canal Zone and let Congress debate; and while the debate goes on, the canal does also.”

“If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month.”

“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 behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things.”

“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”

“It is not often that a man can make opportunities for himself. But he can put himself in such shape that when or if the opportunities come he is ready.”

“It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.”

“It is true of the Nation, as of the individual, that the greatest doer must also be a great dreamer.”

“It may be true that he travels farthest who travels alone, but the goal thus reached is not worth reaching.”

“Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong.”

“Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.”

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

“Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering.”

“Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

“Obedience of the law is demanded; not asked as a favor.”

“Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you've got to start young.”

“Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive.”

“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official.”

“People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.”

“Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action, and we have trusted only to rhetoric. If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk; we must act big.”

“Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.”

“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.”

“The boy who is going to make a great man must not make up his mind merely to overcome a thousand obstacles, but to win in spite of a thousand repulses and defeats.”

“The conservation of natural resources is the fundamental problem. Unless we solve that problem it will avail us little to solve all others.”

“The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight.”

“The government is us; we are the government, you and I.”

“The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.”

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

“The nation behaves well if it treats its natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired, in value.”

“The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.”

“The only time you really live fully is from thirty to sixty. The young are slaves to dreams; the old servants of regrets. Only the middle-aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits.”

“The pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer.”

“The reactionary is always willing to take a progressive attitude on any issue that is dead.”

“The reader, the booklover, must meet his own needs without paying too much attention to what his neighbors say those needs should be.”

“The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, and love of soft living and the get-rich-quick theory of life.”

“The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly.”

“There can be no life without change, and to be afraid of what is different or unfamiliar is to be afraid of life.”

“There is quite enough sorrow and shame and suffering and baseness in real life, and there is no need for meeting it unnecessarily in fiction.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.”

“We should not forget that it will be just as important to our descendants to be prosperous in their time as it is to us to be prosperous in our time.”

“When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer 'Present' or 'Not guilty.'”

“When you play, play hard; when you work, don't play at all.”

“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.”