I now believe as sincerely as ever, for all the laws that the wit of man can devise will never make a man a worthy citizen unless he has within himself the right stuff, unless he has self-reliance, energy, courage, the power of insisting on his own rights and the sympathy that makes him regardful of the rights of others.

— Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt Quotes

I was not going to earn money, I must even things up by not spending it.

— Theodore Roosevelt

Of course, really, those that stayed were entitled to precisely as much honor as those that went.

— Theodore Roosevelt

I ended my statement to the colored soldiers by saying: “Now, I shall be very sorry to hurt you, and you don’t know whether or not I will keep my word, but my men can tell you that I always do;” whereupon my cow-punchers, hunters, and miners solemnly nodded their heads and commented in chorus, exactly as if in a comic opera, “He always does; he always does!

— Theodore Roosevelt

We did everything possible to keep up the spirits of the men, but it was exceedingly difficult because there was nothing for them to do.

— Theodore Roosevelt

Again, a few generations ago an American workman could have saved money, gone West and taken up a homestead. Now the free lands were gone. In earlier days a man who began with pick and shovel might have come to own a mine. That outlet too was now closed, as regards the immense majority, and few, if any, of the one hundred and fifty thousand mine workers could ever aspire to enter the small circle of men who held in their grasp the great anthracite industry.

— Theodore Roosevelt

Far-seeing patriots should turn scornfully from men who seek power on a platform which with exquisite nicety combines silly inability to understand the national needs and dishonest insintcerity in promising conflicting and impossible remedies.

— Theodore Roosevelt

Just as democratic government cannot be condemned because of errors and even crimes committed by men democratically elected, so trade-unionism must not be condemned because of errors or crimes of occasional trade-union leaders.

— Theodore Roosevelt

In the same way I have always regarded boxing as a first-class sport to encourage in the Young Men’s Christian Association.

— Theodore Roosevelt

Shooting well with the rifle is the highest kind of skill, for the rifle is the queen of weapons; and it is a difficult art to learn.

— Theodore Roosevelt

There is nothing more practical in the end than the preservation of beauty.

— Theodore Roosevelt

I have always been fond of Josh Billings’s remark that “it is much easier to be a harmless dove than a wise serpent.” There are plenty of decent legislators, and plenty of able legislators; but the blamelessness and the fighting edge are not always combined. Both qualities are necessary for the man who is to wage active battle against the powers that prey.

— Theodore Roosevelt

We are not building this country of ours for a day. It is to last through the ages.

— Theodore Roosevelt

Our fight is a fundamental fight against both of the old corrupt party machines, for both are under the dominion of the plunder league of the professional politicians who are controlled and sustained by the great beneficiaries of privilege and reaction.

— Theodore Roosevelt

You must do it alone.

— Theodore Roosevelt

When men fear work or fear righteous war, when women fear motherhood, they tremble on the brink of doom; and well it is that they should vanish from the earth, where they are fit subjects for the scorn of all men and women who are themselves strong and brave and high-minded.

— Theodore Roosevelt

No amount of charity in spending such fortunes can compensate in any way for the misconduct in acquiring them.

— Theodore Roosevelt

It is inexcusable to refuse to work, to work slackly or perversely, or to mar the work of others.

— Theodore Roosevelt

Follow your Dreams.

— Theodore Roosevelt

If we say of a boy or a man, “He is of good character,” we mean that he does not do a great many things that are wrong, and we also mean that he does do a great many things which imply much effort of will and readiness to face what is disagreeable. He must not steal, he must not be intemperate, he must not be vicious in any way; he must not be mean or brutal; he must not bully the weak. In fact, he must refrain from whatever is evil. But besides refraining from evil, he must do good.

— Theodore Roosevelt

But a man whose business is sedentary should get some kind of exercise if he wishes to keep himself in as good physical trim as his brethren who do manual labor.

— Theodore Roosevelt
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