Weekly wisdom from the Godfather of The Ripon Society and our Nation's 26^th President,
Theodore Roosevelt

January 31, 2012

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

– Berkeley, California, 1911

January 24, 2012

"There is one quality which perhaps, strictly speaking, is as much intellectual as moral, but which is too often wholly lacking in
men of high intellectual ability and without which real
character cannot exist—namely, the fundamental
gift of common sense."

– The Outlook, November 8, 1913

January 17, 2012

"No laws which the wit of man can devise will avail to make the community prosperous if the average individual lives in such
fashion that his expenditures always exceed his income."

– The Outlook, October 5, 1912

January 10, 2012

"Unless this is in very truth a government of, by, and for the people, then both historically and in world interest our national
existence loses most of its point."

– The Outlook, January 21, 1911

January 3, 2012

"We, here in America, hold in our hands the hope of the world, the fate of the coming years; and shame and disgrace will be ours
if in our eyes the light of high resolve is dimmed, if we
trail in the dust the golden hopes of men."

– at Carnegie Hall, March 20, 1912

December 27, 2011

"At Sagamore Hill we love a great many things—birds and trees and books, and all things beautiful, and horses and rifles and
children and hard work and the joy of life."

– An Autobiography, 1913

December 20, 2011

"Christmas was an occasion of literally delirious joy… I never knew anyone else have what seemed to me such attractive Christmases, and in the next generation I tried to reproduce them
exactly for my own children."

– An Autobiography, 1913

December 13, 2011

"I don’t think partisanship should ever obscure the truth."

– September 14, 1881 letter to
Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Sr.

December 6, 2011

"It is not in the power of any human being to devise legislation or administration by which every man shall achieve success and have happiness; it not only is not in the power of any man to do that,
but if any man says that he can do it, distrust him as a quack."

– Dallas, Texas, April 5, 1905

November 29, 2011

"There are two kinds of historians: one, the delver, the bricklayer, the man who laboriously gathers together bare facts; and the other, the builder, the architect, who out of these facts makes the great edifice of history. Both are indispensable; but it is only the
latter who can be called an historian in the highest sense."

– Bookman, June 1897

November 22, 2011

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

– Chicago, Illinois, April 10, 1899

November 15, 2011

"[O]nly a very few great reforms or great measures of any
kind can be carried through without concession."

– Atlantic Monthly, August 1894

November 8, 2011

"There is no class of our citizens, big or small, who so emphatically deserve well of the country as the officers and the
enlisted men of the army and navy."

– New York Times, November 22, 1914

November 1, 2011

"It is impossible for a democracy to endure if the political
lines are drawn to coincide with class lines."

– Century, January 1900

October 25, 2011

"Character is far more important than intellect in making a man a
good citizen or successful at his calling—meaning by character
not only such qualities as honesty and truthfulness, but
courage, perseverance and self-reliance."

– North American Review, August 1890

October 18, 2011

"I think we can say this much, Republicans have not
always done well, but it will be an evil day when
they do as badly as the Democrats."

– New York, October 28, 1882

October 11, 2011

"It often happens that the good conditions of the past can be regained, not by going back, but by going forward. We cannot recreate what is dead; we cannot stop the march of events;
but we can direct this march, and out of the new conditions
develop something better than the past knew."

– The Outlook, August 27, 1910

October 4, 2011

"Never, never, you must never remind a man at work on a political job that he may be President. It almost always kills him politically.
He loses his nerve; he can’t do his work; he gives up the
very traits that are making him a possibility."

– To reporters at New York Police Headquarters, November 1896

September 27, 2011

"It is always better to be an original than an imitation."

– Forum, April 1894

September 20, 2011

"No man ever permanently helped a reform by lying on behalf of the reform. Tell the truth about it; and then you can expect
to be believed when you tell further truths."

– Pacific Theological Seminary, Spring 1911

September 13, 2011

"[A] man knows little of our political, social and industrial needs as a nation who does not know that… politics… affect women precisely as much as they affect men; and he must be unfortunate in his life of acquaintances if he does not know women whose advice
and counsel are pre-eminently worth having in regard
to the matters affecting our welfare…"

– St. Johnsbury Vermont, August 30, 1912

September 6, 2011

"Labor organizations are like other organizations, like organizations of capitalists; sometimes they act very well and sometimes they act very badly. We should consistently favor them when they act
well, and as fearlessly oppose them when they act badly."

– Berkeley, California, March 23, 1911

August 30, 2011

"In a time of sudden and wide-spread disaster, caused by a flood, a blizzard, an earthquake, or an epidemic, there may be ample reason for the extension of charity on the largest scale to everyone who needs it. But these conditions are wholly exceptional, and the methods of relief employed to meet them must also be treated as wholly exceptional … The greatest possible good can be done by the extension of a helping hand at the right moment, but the attempt to carry any one permanently can end in nothing but harm."

– Essay on Civic Helpfulness
Published in the “Century,” October 1900

August 23, 2011

"We have no higher duty than to promote the efficiency
of the individual. There is no surer road
to the efficiency of the nation."

– Ohio Constitutional Convention
Columbus, Ohio, February 21, 1912

August 16, 2011

"Our country offers the most wonderful example of democratic government on a giant scale that the world has ever seen;
and the peoples of the world are watching
to see whether we succeed or fail."

– Saratoga, New York, September 27, 1910

August 9, 2011

"I would rather go out of politics feeling that I had done what was right than stay in with the approval of all men, knowing
in my heart that I had acted as I ought not to."

– New York Assembly, 1884

August 2, 2011

"The long path leading upward toward the light cannot be traversed at once, or in a day, or in a year. But there are certain steps that can be taken… Having taken these first steps, we shall see more
clearly how to walk still further with a bolder stride."

– New York, October 30, 1912

July 26, 2011

"I think very little of mere oratory. I feel an impatient contempt
for the man of words if he is merely a man of words."

– Letter to Henry Cabot Lodge, July 19, 1908

July 19, 2011

"From the days when civilized man first began to strive for
self-government and democracy, success in this effort
has depended primarily upon the ability
to steer clear of extremes."

– The Metropolitan Magazine, December 1918

July 12, 2011

"We welcome leadership, but we wish our leaders to understand that they derive their strength from us, and that, although we look
to them for guidance, we expect this guidance to be in
accordance with our interests and our ideals."

– The Outlook, July 9, 1910

July 5, 2011

"Americanism is a question of spirit, conviction, and purpose,
not of creed or birthplace."

– Forum, April 1894

June 28, 2011

"To bear the name of American is to bear the most
honorable of titles."

– Forum, April 1894

June 21, 2011

"My hat’s in the ring. The fight is on and I’m stripped to the buff."

– Press Conference, 1912

June 14, 2011

"The United States of America has not the option as to whether
it will or will not play a great part in the world.
It must play a great part."

– The Outlook, April 1, 1911

June 7, 2011

"Honesty and common sense are the two
prime requisites for a legislator."

– Albany, New York, 1883

May 31, 2011

"The sons of all of us will pay in the future if we of the
present do not do justice in the present."

– Louisville, Kentucky, April 3, 1912

May 25, 2011

"No nation ever amounted to anything if it did not have
within its soul the power of fealty to a lofty ideal."

– Berkeley, California, 1913

May 17, 2011

"When any public man says that he ‘will never compromise under any conditions,’ he is certain to receive the applause of a few emotional people who do not think correctly, and the one fact about him that
can be instantly asserted as true beyond peradventure is that,
if he is a serious personage at all, he is deliberately lying."

– The Outlook, July 28, 1900

May 10, 2011

"I should heartily despise the public servant who failed to do his
duty because it might jeopardize his own future."

– Letter of February 21, 1899

May 3, 2011

"I am an optimist, but I hope I am a reasonably intelligent one. I recognize that all the time there are numerous evil forces at
work, and that in places and at times they outweigh the
forces that tend for good. Hitherto, on the whole, the
good have come out ahead, and I think
that they will in the future."

- Letter to Owen Wister, February 27, 1895

April 26, 2011

"Success – the real success – does not depend upon the position
you hold, but upon how you carry yourself in that position."

- University of Cambridge, England, May 26, 1910

April 19, 2011

"When we come to dealing with our social and industrial needs, remedies, rights and wrongs, a ton of oratory is not worth
an ounce of hard-headed, kindly common sense."

- Chicago, Illinois, September 3, 1900

April 12, 2011

"A man must have in him a strong and earnest sense of duty and the desire to accomplish good for the commonwealth, without regard to the effect upon himself, to be useful in Congress."

- Harvard Graduates' Magazine, October 1892

April 5, 2011

"I am not trying to be subtle or original. I am trying to make the plain everyday citizen here in America stand for the things which
I regard as essential to good government."

- Ladies' Home Journal, October 1916

March 29, 2011

"The only proper rule is never fight at all if you can honorably avoid it, but never under any circumstances to fight in a half-hearted way."

- Foes of Our Own Household, 1917

March 22, 2011

"The steady aim of this nation, as of all enlightened nations, should be to strive to bring nearer the day when there shall prevail
throughout the world the peace of justice."

- Annual Address to Congress, December 6, 1904

March 15, 2011

"Conservation means development as much as it does protection. I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and
use the natural resources of our land; but I do not recognize
the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use,
the generations that come after us."

- Osawatomie, Kansas, August 31, 1910

March 8, 2011

"Let the watchwords of all our people be the old familiar watchwords of honesty, decency, fair-dealing, and common sense."

- Syracuse, New York, September 7, 1903

March 1, 2011

"Power undirected by high purpose spells calamity, and high purpose by itself is utterly useless if the power to put it into effect is lacking."

- The Outlook, September 9, 1911

February 22, 2011

"The Americans who stand highest on the list of the world’s worthies are Washington, who fought to found the country which he
afterward governed, and Lincoln, who saved it through
the blood of the best and bravest of the land."

- Address at the Naval War College, June 1897

February 15, 2011

"Example is the most potent of all things."

- Oyster Bay, New York, August 16, 1903

February 8, 2011

"If an individual starts to play football, and expects not
to get bumped, he will be sadly disappointed."

- Address at Occidental College, March 22, 1911

February 1, 2011

"We believe in all our hearts in democracy; in the capacity of the people to govern themselves; and we are bound to succeed, for
our success means not only our own triumph, but the triumph
of the cause of the rights of the people throughout the
world, and the uplifting of the banner of hope
for all the nations of mankind."

- Saratoga, New York, September 27, 1910

January 25, 2011

"Stability of economic policy must always be the prime
economic need of this country."

- State of the Union, December 2, 1902

January 18, 2011

"Justice and generosity in a nation, as in an individual, count most when shown not by the weak but by the strong."

- Inaugural Address, March 4, 1905

January 11, 2011

"The best lesson that any people can learn is that there is no patent cure-all which will make the body politic perfect, and that any man who is able glibly to answer every question as to how to deal
with the evils of the body politic is at best a foolish
visionary and at worst an evil-minded quack."

- The Outlook, April 10, 1909

January 4, 2011

"A man who goes into politics should not expect to
reform everything right off, with a jump."

- Buffalo, NY, July 26, 1893

December 28, 2010

"Perhaps there is no more important component of
character than steadfast resolution."

- The Strenuous Life, 1900

December 21, 2010

"We always liked snow at Christmas time, and the sleigh-ride
down to the church on Christmas eve."

- An Autobiography, 1913

December 14, 2010

"The welfare of each of us is dependent fundamentally
upon the welfare of all of us."

- Address in Syracuse, NY, September 7, 1903

December 7, 2010

"Legislation to be permanently good for any class must also be good for the Nation as a whole, and legislation which does injustice
to any class is certain to work harm to the Nation."

- Address in Syracuse, NY, September 7, 1903

November 30, 2010

"A compromise which results in a half-step toward evil is all wrong, just as the opportunist who saves himself for the moment by
adopting a policy which is fraught with future disaster is all wrong."

- The Strenuous Life, 1901

November 23, 2010

"Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us; and that true homage comes from the
heart as well as from the lips and shows itself in deeds."

- Proclamation 466, Thanksgiving Day – November 2, 1901

November 16, 2010

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

- The Groton School, Groton, MA, May 24, 1904

November 9, 2010

"When we have the power, I most earnestly hope, and should
most earnestly advocate, that it be used with the
greatest wisdom and self-restraint."

- Address in Wheeling, WV, September 6, 1902

November 2, 2010

"A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends
upon the character of the user."

- An Autobiography, 1913

October 26, 2010

"If a labor union does wrong, we oppose it as firmly as we oppose a corporation which does wrong; and we stand equally stoutly for the rights of the man of wealth and for the rights of the wage worker."

- Special Message to Congress, January 31, 1908

October 19, 2010

"Under the American system, it is impossible for a man to accomplish anything by himself; he must associate himself with others,
and they must throw their weight together."

- American Ideals, and Other Essays, Social and Political, 1897

October 12, 2010

"We, the people, rule ourselves, and what we really want from our
representatives is that they shall manage the government
for us along the lines we lay down, and shall do
this with efficiency and good faith."

- St. Louis, MO, March 28, 1912

October 5, 2010

"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."

- An Autobiography 1913

September 28, 2010

"Athletics are good; study is even better; and best of all is the development of the type of character for the lack of which,
in an individual as in a nation, no amount of brilliance
of mind or of strength of body will atone."

- Address at Harvard University, February 23, 1907

September 21, 2010

"At this moment, we are passing through a period of great unrest – social, political and industrial unrest. It is of the utmost importance for our future that this should prove to be not the unrest of mere rebelliousness against life, of mere dissatisfaction with the inevitable inequality of conditions, but the unrest of a resolute and eager ambition to secure the betterment of the individual and the nation."

– Address at the Laying of the Cornerstone of the
Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC, April 14, 1906

September 14, 2010

"Order without liberty and liberty without order are
equally destructive."

- The Great Adventure, 1918

September 7, 2010

"A great free people owes it to itself and to all mankind not to sink into helplessness before the powers of evil."

- Fourth Annual Message to Congress, 1904

August 31, 2010

"Where such results flow from battles as flowed from Bannockburn and Yorktown, centuries must pass before the wound not only scars over but becomes completely forgotten, and the memory becomes a bond of union and not a cause of division. It is our business to shorten the time as much as possible."

- Letter to Sir George Otto Trevelyan, January 1, 1908

August 24, 2010

"Something can be done by good laws; more can be done by the honest administration of the laws; but most of all can be done by frowning resolutely upon the preachers of vague discontent…"

- Review of Reviews, January 1897

August 17, 2010

"If there is any one quality that is not admirable, whether in a
nation or in an individual, it is hysterics, either in
religion or in anything else."

- Boston, MA, August 25, 1902

August 10, 2010

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

- Washington, DC, April 14, 1906

August 3, 2010

"I believe the majority of the plain people of the United States will, day in and day out, make fewer mistakes in governing themselves than any smaller class or body of men."

- Columbus, OH, February 21, 1912

July 27, 2010

"Expose crime and hunt down the criminal; but remember that, even in the case of crime, if it is attacked in sensational, lurid, and untruthful fashion, the attack may do more damage to
the public mind than the crime itself."

- Washington, DC, April 4, 1906

July 20, 2010

"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 big; we must act big."

- Metropolitan, September, 1917

July 13, 2010

"Now and then one can stand uncompromisingly for a naked principle and force people up to it. This is always the attractive course; but in certain great crises it may be the wrong course."

- Atlantic Monthly, August, 1894

July 6, 2010

"Like all Americans, I like big things: big prairies, big forests and mountains, big wheat fields, railroads—and herds of cattle, too—big factories, steam boats, and everything else."

- Dickinson, Dakota Territory, July 4, 1886

June 29, 2010

"Nothing has been so strongly borne in on me concerning lawyers on the bench as that the nominal politics of the man has nothing to do with his actions on the bench. His real politics are all important."

- Letter to Henry Cabot Lodge, September 4, 1906

June 22, 2010

"What a place the Presidency is for learning to keep one's temper."

- Letter to his son Kermit, June 17, 1906

June 15, 2010

"There is a tendency to believe that a hundred small men can furnish leadership equal to that of one big man.  This is not so."

- Ladies' Homes Journal, May 1917

June 8, 2010

"No man ever really learned from books how to manage a governmental system....If he has never done anything but study books he will not be a statesman at all."

- Atlantic Monthly, August 1890