Quotes by Roosevelt, Theodore

"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."

Roosevelt, Theodore on decisions
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"I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life."

Roosevelt, Theodore on dedication
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"At sometime in our lives a devil dwells within us, causes heartbreaks, confusion and troubles, then dies."

Roosevelt, Theodore on evil
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"The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his weight."

Roosevelt, Theodore on duty
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"A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad."

Roosevelt, Theodore on education
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"To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society."

Roosevelt, Theodore on education
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"Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been effort stored up in the past."

Roosevelt, Theodore on effort
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"There has never yet been a man in our history who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering."

Roosevelt, Theodore on effort
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"No man is above the law, and no man is below it."

Roosevelt, Theodore on equality
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"No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency."

Roosevelt, Theodore on expediency
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"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."

Roosevelt, Theodore on failure
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"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. In this life we get nothing save by effort."

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

Roosevelt, Theodore on america
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"The American people abhor a vacuum."

Roosevelt, Theodore on america   

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

Roosevelt, Theodore on government   

"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. But there is absolutely nothing to be said for government by a plutocracy, for government by men very powerful in certain lines and gifted with the money touch, but with ideals which in their essence are merely those of so many glorified pawnbrokers."

Roosevelt, Theodore on government   

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

Roosevelt, Theodore on art
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"Some men can live up to their loftiest ideals without ever going higher than a basement."

Roosevelt, Theodore on ideals and idealism
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"Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country."

Roosevelt, Theodore on immigration
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"It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things."

Roosevelt, Theodore on labor
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"It is difficult to make our material condition better by the best law, but it is easy enough to ruin it by bad laws."

Roosevelt, Theodore on law and lawyers   

"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."

Roosevelt, Theodore on leadership
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"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."

Roosevelt, Theodore on leadership   

"It is better to be faithful than famous."

Roosevelt, Theodore on loyalty
12 fans of this quote   

"The men with the muck-rake are often indispensable to the well-being of society, but only if they know when to stop raking the muck."

Roosevelt, Theodore on media   

"All the resources we need are in the mind"

Roosevelt, Theodore on mind   

"The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything"

Roosevelt, Theodore on mistakes
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"There can be no fifty-fifty Americanism in this country. There is room here for only 100 % Americanism, only for those who are Americans and nothing else."

Roosevelt, Theodore on multiculturalism   

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

Roosevelt, Theodore on obedience   

"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!"

Roosevelt, Theodore on opinions
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"A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards. More than that no man is entitled to, and less than that no man shall have."

Roosevelt, Theodore on patriotism
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"The pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer."

Roosevelt, Theodore on peace
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"Peace is normally a great good, and normally it coincides with righteousness, but it is righteousness and not peace which should bind the conscience of a nation as it should bind the conscience of an individual; and neither a nation nor an individual can surrender conscience to another's keeping."

Roosevelt, Theodore on peace   

"I am only an average man but, by George, I work harder at it than the average man."

Roosevelt, Theodore on averages   

"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."

Roosevelt, Theodore on politics   

"When they call the roll in the Senate, the senators do not know whether to answer present or not guilty."

Roosevelt, Theodore on politics
4 fans of this quote   

"The most successful politician is he who says what everybody is thinking most often and in the loudest voice."

Roosevelt, Theodore on politics   

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

Roosevelt, Theodore on power
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"Willful sterility is, from the standpoint of the nation, from the standpoint of the human race, the one sin for which the penalty is national death, race death; a sin for which there is no atonement. No man, no woman, can shirk the primary duties of life, whether for love of ease and pleasure, or for any other cause, and retain his or her self-respect."

Roosevelt, Theodore on creation   

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

Roosevelt, Theodore on public office