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

Theodore Roosevelt Quotes

The problems differ from generation to generation, but the qualities needed to solve them remain unchanged from world’s end to world’s end.

— Theodore Roosevelt

There! you will think this a dreadfully preaching letter! I suppose I have a natural tendency to preach just at present because I am overwhelmed with my work.

— Theodore Roosevelt

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
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