Theodore Roosevelt famous quotes

A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Country #Men #Blood

Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Country #Peace #Mean

Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children's children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Country #Nature #Children

I do not dislike but I certainly have no especial respect or admiration for and no trust in, the typical big moneyed men of my country. I do not regard them as furnishing sound opinion as respects either foreign or domestic business.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Country #Business #Men

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Inspirational #Motivational #Success

Believe you can and you're halfway there.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Inspirational #Positive #Inspiring

With great victory comes great sacrifice.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Sacrifice #Victory #Great Sacrifice

The man who loves other countries as much as his own stands on a level with the man who loves other women as much as he loves his own wife.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Country #Men #Wife

There can be nothing in the world more beautiful than the Yosemite, the groves of the giant sequoias and redwoods, the Canyon of the Colorado, the Canyon of the Yellowstone, the Three Tetons; and our people should see to it that they are preserved for their children and their children's children forever, with their majestic beauty all unmarred.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Beautiful #Children #Yellowstone

Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Inspirational #Life #Motivational

People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Leadership #Differences #People

It is always better to be an original than an imitation.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Originality #Imitation

Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you've got to start young.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Happy Birthday #Congratulations #Journey

Of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Political #Wealth #Attractive

Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Motivational #Inspiring #Leadership

Appraisals are where you get together with your team leader and agree what an outstanding member of the team you are, how much your contribution has been valued, what massive potential you have and, in recognition of all this, would you mind having your salary halved.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Team #Leader #Mind

We will send ships and Marines as soon as possible for the protection of American life and property.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Marine #Ships #Protection

The great body of our citizens shoot less as times goes on. We should encourage rifle practice among schoolboys, and indeed among all classes, as well as in the military services by every means in our power. Thus, and not otherwise, may we be able to assist in preserving peace in the world... The first step – in the direction of preparation to avert war if possible, and to be fit for war if it should come – is to teach men to shoot!
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Military #War #Mean

The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything. Do not be afraid to make mistakes providing you do not make the same one twice.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Mistake #Men #Doe

In a civilized and cultivated country wild animals only continue to exist at all when preserved by sportsmen. the excellent people who protest against all hunting, and consider sportsmen as enemies of wild life, are ignorant of the fact that in reality the genuine sportsman is by all odds the most important factor in keeping the larger and more valuable wild creatures from total extermination.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Country #Animal #Reality

Comparison is the thief of joy.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Healing #Feel Good #Joy

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.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Inspirational #Motivational #Change

The name Roosevelt has this legendary force in our country at this time.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Country #Time #Names

Then get busy and find out how to do it.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Inspirational #Busy

There is a delight in the hardy life of the open. There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy and its charm. The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased; and not impaired in value. Conservation means development as much as it does protection.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Mean #Doe #Generations

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; we must act big.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Political #Politics #Action

The chief factor in any man's success or failure must be his own character.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Success #Character #Men

Wild beasts and birds are by right not the property merely of the people today, but the property of the unborn generations, whose belongings we have no right to squander.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#People #Bird #Generations

The joy in life is his who has the heart to demand it.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Inspirational #Heart #Joy

Free speech exercised both individually and through a free press, is a necessity in any country where people are themselves free.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Country #Interesting #People

We demand that big business give the people a square deal; in return we must insist that when any one engaged in big business honestly endeavors to do right he shall himself be given a square deal.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Business #Squares #Giving

This country has nothing to fear from the crooked man who fails. We put him in jail. It is the crooked man who succeeds who is a threat to this country.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Country #Men #Jail

Let us show, not merely in great crises, but in every day of life, qualities of practical intelligence, of hardihood and endurance, and above all, the power of devotion to a lofty ideal.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Life #Quality #Endurance

Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Freedom #Order #Liberty

We Americans have many grave problems to solve, many threatening evils to fight, and many deeds to do, if, as we hope and believe, we have the wisdom, the strength, and the courage and the virtue to do them. But we must face facts as they are. We must neither surrender ourselves to a foolish optimism, nor succumb to a timid and ignoble pessimism.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Believe #Fighting #Evil

Wars are, of course, as a rule to be avoided; but they are far better than certain kinds of peace.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Peace #War #Kind

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

#Office #People #President

To waste, to destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Inspirational #Nature #Children

The most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often in the loudest voice.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Success #Thinking #Voice

Obedience of the law is demanded; not asked as a favor.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Law #Favors #Obedience

Every person who invests in well-selected real estate in a growing section of a prosperous community adopts the surest and safest method of becoming independent, for real estate is the basis of wealth.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Real #Independent #Community

I believe that there should be a very much heavier progressive tax on very large incomes, a tax which should increase in a very marked fashion for the gigantic incomes.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Fashion #Believe #Income

It is necessary for the welfare of the nation that men's lives be based on the principles of the Bible. No man, educated or uneducated, can afford to be ignorant of the Bible.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Patriotic #Men #Ignorant

Whatever it is, handle it so that your children's children will get the benefit of it.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Children #Benefits #Handle

We stand for a living wage. Wages are subnormal if they fail to provide a living for those who devote their time and energy to industrial occupations. The monetary equivalent of a living wage varies according to local conditions, but must include enough to secure the elements of a normal standard of living-a standard high enough to make morality possible, to provide for education and recreation, to care for immature members of the family, to maintain the family during periods of sickness, and to permit of reasonable saving for old age.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Immature #Age #Elements

I do not believe there was ever a life more attractive than life on a cattle farm.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Believe #Attractive #Cattle

It is better to be faithful than famous.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Army #Faithful #Being Faithful

The man of great wealth owes a peculiar obligation to the state because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Men #Special #Peculiar

There were all kinds of things I was afraid of at first, ranging from grizzly bears to 'mean' horses and gun-fighters; but by acting as if I was not afraid I gradually ceased to be afraid.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Horse #Fear #Mean

Nothing worth having comes easy.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Work #Easy

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.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Real #Party #Issues

There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Country #Would Be #Way

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.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Mean #Land #Doe

It is not the critic who counts...The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena...
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Men #Arena #Credit

The one quality which sets one man apart from another- the key which lifts one to every aspiration while others are caught up in the mire of mediocrity- is not talent, formal education, nor intellectual brightness - it is self-discipline. With self-discipline all things are possible. Without it, even the simplest goal can seem like the impossible dream.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Dream #Men #Keys

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.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Gratitude #Heart #Deeds

Work hard at work worth doing.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Hard Work

Most of us tiptoe through life in order to make it safely to death.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Order #Tiptoes

The conservation of natural resources is the fundamental problem. Unless we solve that problem it will avail us little to solve all others.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Fundamentals #Dinosaurs #Littles

Optimism is a good characteristic, but if carried to an excess, it becomes foolishness. We are prone to speak of the resources of this country as inexhaustible; this is not so.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Country #Optimism #Excess

Complaining about a problem without posing a solution is called whining.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Complaining #Problem #Whining

We need the iron qualities that go with true manhood. We need the positive virtues of resolution, of courage, of indomitable will, of power to do without shrinking the rough work that must always be done.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Wisdom #Iron #Quality

Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been effort stored up in the past.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Freedom #Mean #Past

It is no use to preach to [children] if you do not act decently yourself.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Children #Use

To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Leadership #Education #Honesty

A typical vice of American politics is the avoidance of saying anything real on real issues.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Real #Patriotic #Issues

Get action. Seize the moment. Man was never intended to become an oyster.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Attitude #Men #Oysters

Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Inspirational #Patriotic #Thoughtful

The only time you really live fully is from thirty to sixty. The young are slaves to dreams; the old servants of regrets. Only the middle-aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Dream #Regret #Age

It is essential that there should be organization of labor. This is an era of organization. Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Aquariums #Organization #Eras

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president... is morally treasonable to the American public.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Peace #War #President

Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Leadership #Presidential #Sticks

The pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Country #Peace #Humanity

And to lose the chance to see frigatebirds soaring in circles above the storm, or a file of pelicans winging their way homeward across the crimson afterglow of the sunset, or a myriad terns flashing in the bright light of midday as they hover in a shifting maze above the beach -- why, the loss is like the loss of a gallery of the masterpieces of the artists of old time.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Beach #Sunset #Loss

Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Wisdom #Memories #Struggle

You can't choose your potential, but you can choose to fulfill it.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

No man is above the law and no man is below it: nor do we ask any man's permission when we ask him to obey it.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Patriotic #Men #Law

A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Character #Gun #Political

Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Strength #Peace #Squash

Absence and death are the same - only that in death there is no suffering.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Missing You #Distance #Losing Someone

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Inspirational #Change #Positive

When you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, 'Certainly I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Life #Motivational #Success

When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer 'Present' or 'Not guilty.'
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Presidential #Guilt #Answers

I don't pity any man who does hard work worth doing. I admire him. I pity the creature who does not work, at whichever end of the social scale he may regard himself as being.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Work #Men #Doe

With self-discipline most anything is possible.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Inspirational #Wisdom #Self

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.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Graduation #Education #School

A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Bible #Education #Christian

Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Love #Stars #Teaching

Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Love #Inspirational #Life

I am a part of everything that I have read.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Reading #Better Life

The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Hitting #Crime #Unforgivable

Get action. Do things; be sane; don't fritter away your time; create, act, take a place wherever you are and be somebody; get action.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Action #Sane

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

#Inspirational #Work #Men

If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Wisdom #Responsibility #Pants

Criticism is necessary and useful; it is often indispensable; but it can never take the place of action, or be even a poor substitute for it. The function of the mere critic is of very subordinate usefulness. It is the doer of deeds who actually counts in the battle for life, and not the man who looks on and says how the fight ought to be fought, without himself sharing the stress and the danger.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Stress #Fighting #Men

Let us speak courteously, deal fairly, and keep ourselves armed and ready.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Speak #Ready #Deals

Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Running #Perseverance #Stay Strong

Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Inspirational #Motivational #Encouraging

No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expedience.
-- Theodore Roosevelt

#Life #Men #Evil

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

#Heart #Thinking #Political