|
March 19,
2013
“It either is or ought to be evident to every one that business has to prosper before anybody can get any benefit from it.”
– February 21, 1912, Ohio State Constitutional Convention, Columbus, OH
|
March 12,
2013
“The first requisite of a good citizen in this Republic of ours is
that he shall be able and willing to pull his weight.”
– New York City, November 11, 1902
|
|
March 5,
2013
“It is character that counts in a nation as in a man.”
– Galena, Illinois, April 27, 1900
|
|
February 26,
2013
“When the people will not or cannot work together; when they permit groups of extremists to decline to accept anything that does not coincide with their own extreme views, or when they let power
slip from their hands through sheer supine indifference;
then they have themselves chiefly to blame if
the power is grasped by stronger hands.”
– Oliver Cromwell, 1900
|
|
February 19,
2013
“Avoid the base hypocrisy of condemning in one man what you pass over in silence when committed by another.”
– Cambridge, Massachusetts, March 11, 1890
|
|
February 12,
2013
“Lincoln was a great radical. He was of course a wise and cautious radical – otherwise he could have done nothing
for the forward movement.”
– The Foes of Our Own Household, 1917
|
|
February 5,
2013
“No man is a good citizen unless he so acts as to show that he
actually uses the Ten Commandments, and translates the
Golden Rule into his life conduct.”
– Boy Scouts of America handbook, 1911
|
|
January 29,
2013
“Americanism is a question of principle, of purpose, of idealism, of character; ... not a matter of birthplace, or creed,
or line of descent.”
– Washington, DC, November 25, 1908
|
|
January 22,
2013
“Our loyalty is due entirely to the United States. It is due to the President only and exactly to the degree in which he efficiently
serves the United States. It is our duty to support him
when he serves the United States well. It is our
duty to oppose him when he serves it badly.”
– Kansas City Star, April 6, 1918
|
|
January 15,
2013
“All for each, and each for all, is a good motto, but only on condition that each works with might and main to so maintain himself
as not to be a burden to others.”
– An Autobiography, 1913
|
|
January 8,
2013
“We must remember not to judge any public servant by any one act, and especially should we beware of attacking the men who are
merely the occasions and not the causes of disaster.”
– Chicago, Illinois, April 10, 1899
|
|
December 18,
2012
“Self-governing free men must have the power to accept necessary compromises, to make necessary concessions, each sacrificing somewhat of prejudice, even of principle, and every group
must show the necessary subordination of its particular
interest of the community as a whole.”
– Oliver Cromwell, 1900
|
|
December 11,
2012
“We know that there are in life injustices which we are powerless
to remedy. But we also know that there is much injustice
which can be remedied.”
– The Outlook, March 27, 1909
|
|
December 4,
2012
“I have a strong feeling that it is a President's duty to get on with Congress if he possibly can, and that it is a reflection upon
him if he and Congress come to a complete break.”
– Letter to Theodore Roosevelt Jr., January 31, 1909
|
|
November 27,
2012
“If we fail, the cause of free self-government throughout
the world will rock to its foundations.”
– Inaugural address, March 4, 1905
|
|
November 20,
2012
“The only true conservative is the man who resolutely sets
his face toward the future.”
– Letter to Colonel Thomas Doherty
read March 2, 1912 at a rally at Tremont
Temple in Boston, Massachusetts
|
|
October 23,
2012
“Three-o'clock-in-the-morning courage is the most desirable kind.”
– An Autobiography, 1913
|
|
October 16,
2012
“The man who makes a promise which he does not intend to keep, and does not try to keep, should rightly be adjudged to have forfeited in some degree what should be every man's most
precious possession – his honor.”
– San Francisco, California, May 14, 1903 |
|
October 9,
2012
“It is a great mistake to think that the extremist is a
better man than the moderate.”
– Published in the "Churchman," March 17, 1900 |
|
October 2,
2012
“Let Teddy Win.”
– Spoken by the spirit of Theodore Roosevelt,
in honor of The Washington Nationals
clinching the National League East
|
|
September 25,
2012
“If as a nation we are split into warring camps, if we teach our citizens not to look upon one another as brothers but as enemies divided
by the hatred of creed for creed ... surely we shall fail and
our great democratic experiment on this continent
will go down in crushing overthrow.”
– New York, New York, October 12, 1915
|
|
September 18,
2012
“The American public rarely appreciate the high quality of the work done by some of our diplomats - work, usually entirely
unnoticed and unrewarded, which redounds to the
interest and the honor of all of us.”
– An Autobiography, 1913
|
|
September 11,
2012
“Every feat of heroism makes us forever indebted
to the man who performed it.”
– Des Moines, Iowa, November 4, 1910
|
|
September 4,
2012
“It is always easy for an individual or a party to make promises; the strain comes when the party or individual has to make them good.”
– Baltimore, Maryland, February 23, 1889
|
|
August 28,
2012
“I believe in the party to which we belong because I believe in the principles for which the Republican Party stood in the days
of Abraham Lincoln; and furthermore, and especially
because I believe in treating those principles not
as dead but as living.”
– At the New York Republican State Convention, Saratoga,
September 27, 1910
|
|
August 14,
2012
“Let us insist that the truth be told. The truth only harms weaklings. The American people wish the truth, and can stand the truth.”
– Kansas City Star, January 21, 1918
|
|
August 7,
2012
“A typical vice of American politics - the avoidance of saying anything real on real issues, and the announcement of radical policies with much sound and fury, and at the same time with a cautious accompaniment of weasel phrases each of which sucks
the meat out of the preceding statement.”
– The Outlook, July 27, 1912
|
|
July 31,
2012
“The dealings of the United States with foreign powers should be considered from no partisan standpoint. Our party divisions affect ourselves purely; and when we are brought face to face with
a foreign nation we should act as Americans merely.”
– The Independent, August 11, 1892
|
|
July 24,
2012
“Congress is the legislative body. To legislate means to
make laws, not merely to talk about them.”
– Forum, December 1895
|
|
July 17,
2012
“It is the people, and not the judges, who are entitled to say what their constitution means, for the constitution is theirs, it belongs
to them and not their servants in office.”
– Majority Rule and the Judiciary, July 1, 1912
|
|
July 10,
2012
“It is both foolish and wicked to teach the average man who is not well off that some wrong or injustice has been done him, and that
he should hope for redress elsewhere than in his own
industry, honesty and intelligence.”
– Review of Reviews, January 1897
|
|
July 3,
2012
“So we come here together on the Fourth of July to see what a great people we are; to see how well the generations of our
dead have done their duty.”
– Huntington, New York, July 4, 1903
|
|
June 26,
2012
“In the ordinary and low sense which we attach to the words "partisan" and "politician," a judge of the
Supreme Court should be neither.”
– Letter to Henry Cabot Lodge, July 10, 1902
|
|
June 19,
2012
“The only effective way to help any man is to help him to help himself; and the worst lesson to teach him is that he can be permanently helped at the expense of someone else.”
– Oxford University, June 7, 1910
|
|
June 12,
2012
“When we undertake the impossible, we often fail
to do anything at all.”
– Chicago, Illinois, September 3, 1900
|
|
June 5,
2012
“An epidemic of indiscriminate assault upon character
does not good, but very great harm.”
– Washington, DC, April 14, 1906
|
|
May 29,
2012
“Viewed from any angle, ignorance is the costliest crop
that can be raised in any part of this Union.”
– Tuskegee, Alabama, October 24, 1905
|
|
May 22,
2012
“We cannot do great deeds unless we are willing to do the small things that make up the sum of greatness.”
– New York, New York, May 30, 1899
|
|
May 15,
2012
“The point to be aimed at is the protection of the individual against wrong, not the attempt to limit and hamper the
acquisition and output of wealth.”
– Annual Message as Governor, Albany, New York,
January 3, 1900
|
|
May 8,
2012
“If a party raises an issue which it knows is a false issue, merely for the hope of carrying an election, then that party shows in the most striking way that it is the enemy of the country and unfit
to be entrusted with its government.”
– Akron, Ohio, September 23, 1899
|
|
May 1,
2012
“A war is primarily won by soldiers; the work of the non-soldiers, however valuable, is merely accessory to the
primary work of the fighting men.”
– Metropolitan, September 1917
|
|
April 24,
2012
“The distinguishing feature of our American governmental system is the freedom of the individual; it is quite as important to prevent
his being oppressed by many men as it is to save
him from the tyranny of one.”
– Thomas H. Benton, 1887
|
|
April 17,
2012
“Such a body as the Secret Service … is by far the most efficient
instrument possible to use against crime. Of course
the more efficient an instrument is, the more
dangerous it is if misused.”
– Message to House of Representatives, January 4, 1909
|
|
April 10,
2012
“Our country has been populated by pioneers, and therefore it has more energy, more enterprise, more expansive power
than any other in the wide world.”
– St. Paul, Minnesota, September 2, 1901
|
|
April 3,
2012
“If you have an ideal only good while you sit at home, an ideal that nobody can live up to in outside life, examine it
closely, and then cast it away.”
– Groton Massachusetts, May 24, 1904
|
|
March 27,
2012
“An independent and upright judiciary which fearlessly stands for the right, even against popular clamor, but which also understands
and sympathizes with popular needs, is a great
asset of popular government.”
– Columbus, Ohio, February 21, 1912
|
|
March 20,
2012
“We must keep ever in mind that no action of the government, no action by combination among ourselves, can take the place of
the individual qualities to which in the long run every man
must owe the success he can make of life.”
– Providence, Rhode Island, August 23, 1902
|
|
March 13,
2012
“Conservation means development as much as it does protection.”
– Osawatomie, Kansas, August 31, 1910 |
|
March 6,
2012
“The demagogue, in all his forms, is as characteristic an evil of a
free society as the courtier is of a despotism.”
– Forum, February 1895 |
|
February 28,
2012
"I believe in making it possible for every man or woman who really desires it to have a higher education, but that this
shall be permissive and not obligatory."
– Baltimore, Maryland, September 28, 1918 |
|
February 21,
2012
"It is a great comfort to me to read the life and letters of Abraham Lincoln. I am more and more impressed every day, not only with the man’s wonderful power and sagacity, but with his literally endless patience, and at the same time his unflinching resolution."
– Letter to Kermit Roosevelt, October 2, 1903 |
|
February 14,
2012
"Public welfare depends upon general public prosperity, and the reformer whose reforms interfere with the general
prosperity will accomplish little."
– The Outlook, November 18, 1914 |
|
February 7,
2012
"The vital thing for this nation to do is steadily to cultivate the quality which Washington and those under him so pre-eminently showed during the winter at Valley Forge – the quality of steady adherence to duty in the teeth of difficulty, in the teeth of discouragement, and even disaster, the quality that makes a man do what is straight and decent, not one day when a great crisis comes, but every day, day in
and day out, until success comes at the end."
– at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, June 19, 1904 |
|
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
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September 14,
2010
"Order without liberty and liberty without order are
equally destructive."
- The Great Adventure, 1918 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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June 22,
2010
"What a place the Presidency is for learning to keep one's temper."
- Letter to his son Kermit, June 17, 1906 |
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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 |
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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 |
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June 1,
2010
"Bodily vigor is good, and vigor of intellect is even better, but far above is
character."
- The Outlook, March 31, 1900 |
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May 25,
2010
"It is not what we have that will make us a great nation; it is the way in which
we use it."
- Dickinson, Dakota Territory, July 4, 1886 |
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May 18,
2010
"It is a dredful misfortune for a man to grow to feel that his whole livelihood
and whole happiness depend upon his staying in office."
-San Francisco, California, May 14, 1903 |
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May 11, 2010
"Alone of human beings the good
and wise mother stands on a plane of equal honor with the bravest soldier; for
she has gladly gone down to the brink of the chasm of darkness to bring back the
children in whose hands rest the future of the years."
- The Great Adventure,
1918 |
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May 4,
2010
"Probably the best test of the true love of liberty in any country is the way in
which minorities are treated in that country."
- Sorbonne, Paris, France, April 23, 1910 |
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April 27,
2010
"I have mighty little use for ethics that are applied with such inefficiency that
no good results come."
- Harvard University, December 14, 1910 |
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April 20,
2010
"There is a certain tendency among excellent people to believe that everything
can be accomplished by law; that when there is any wrong, it is due to what they
call the state of society, and that there is immediate need for radical and
sweeping changes in the social system."
- Kansas City, Missouri, May 1, 1903 |
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April 13,
2010
"Diplomacy is utterly useless where there is no force behind it; the diplomat is
the servant, not the master, of the soldier."
- Newport, Rhode Island, June 2, 1897 |
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April 6,
2010
"I like to see Quentin practicing baseball. It gives me hope that one of my boys
will not take after his father in this respect, and will prove able to play the
national game."
- Source
1,
2. |
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March 30,
2010
"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."
- An Autobiography, 1913. |
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March 23,
2010
"War with evil; but show no spirit of malignity toward the man who may be
responsible for the evil. Put it out of his power to do wrong."
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Oyster Bay, New York - July 4, 1906. |
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March 16,
2010
"There is not in all America a more dangerous trait than the deification of mere
smartness unaccompanied by any sense of moral responsibility."
- Abilene, Kansas, May 2, 1903. |
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March 9,
2010
"Whenever there is tyranny by the majority I shall certainly fight it."
- St. Louis, Missouri, March 28, 1912. |
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March 2,
2010
"More and more I have grown to have a horror of the reformer who is half
charlatan and half fanatic, and ruins his own cause by overstatement."
-Oyster Bay, New York - July 20, 1901. |
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February 23,
2010
"Americans learn only from catastrophes and not from experience."
-An Autobiography, 1913. |
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February 16,
2010
"Lincoln is my hero. He was a man of the people who always felt with and for the
people, but who had not the slightest touch of the demagogue in him."
-Letter to Sir George Otto Trevelyan, March 9, 1905. |
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February 9,
2010
"There are few moments more pleasant than the home-coming, when, in the gathering
darkness, after crossing the last chain of ice-covered buttes, or after coming
round the last turn in the wind-swept valley, we see, through the leafless
trees, or across the frozen river, the red gleam of the firelight as it shines
through the ranch windows and flickers over the trunks of the cottonwoods
outside, warming a man's blood by the mere hint of the warmth awaiting him
within."
-Ranch Life in the Hunting Trail, 1896 |
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February 2,
2010
"To borrow a simile from the football field, we believe that men must play fair,
but that there must be no shirking, and that the success can only come to the
player who 'hits the line hard.' "
-Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay, New York, October 1897 |
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January 26,
2010
"The American people are slow to wrath, but when their wrath is once kindled, it
burns like a consuming flame."
-First annual address to Congress, December 3, 1901 |
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January 20,
2010
"It is more difficult to preserve the fruits of victory than to
win the victory."
-McClure's Magazine,
October 1901 |
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January 12,
2010
"No man can lead a public career really worth leading, no man can act with rugged
independence in serious crises, nor strike at great abuses, nor afford to make
powerful and unscrupulous foes, if he is himself vulnerable in his private
character."
-An Autobiography, 1913 |
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January 5,
2010
"To play the demagogue for purposes of self-interest is a cardinal sin against
the people in a democracy."
-An Autobiography, 1913 |
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December 22,
2009
"I wonder whether there ever can come in life a thrill of greater exaltation and
rapture than that which comes to one between the ages of say six and fourteen,
when the library door is thrown open and you walk in to see all the gifts, like
a materialized fairyland, arrayed on your special table?"
-Letter to Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, December 26, 1903 |
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December 15,
2009
"No student of American history needs to be reminded that the Constitution itself
is a bundle of compromises."
-Atlantic Monthly, August 1894 |
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December 8,
2009
"If the business world loses its head, it loses what
legislation cannot supply."
-December 3, 1901, First Annual Message to Congress |
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December 1,
2009
"Do not get into a fight if you can possibly avoid it. If you get in, see
it through. Don't hit if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting, but
never hit soft. Don't hit at all if you can help it; don't hit a man if
you can possibly avoid it; but if you do hit him, put him to sleep."
-January 24, 1918 National Press Club, Washington, DC.
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November 24,
2009
"I do not believe that any man can adequately appreciate the world of today
unless he has some knowledge of -- a little more than a slight knowledge, some
feeling for and of -- the history of the world
of the past."
-Source
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