Theodore Roosevelt Quotes

Theodore Roosevelt Quotes

In this country we have no place for hyphenated Americans.

When you play, play hard; when you work, don't play at all.

No man needs sympathy because he has to work, because he has a burden to carry. Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

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

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

Believe you can and you're halfway there.

Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.

Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die; and none are fit to die who have shrunk from the joy of life and the duty of life. Both life and death are parts of the same Great Adventure.

The only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything.

No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care

Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country.

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.

The lack of power to take joy in outdoor nature is as real a misfortune as the lack of power to take joy in books

When you're at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on

People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care

To educate a person in the mind but not in morals is to educate a menace to society.

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

Books are all very well in their way, and we love them at Sagamore Hill; but children are better than books.

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

As regards the extraordinary prizes, the element of luck is the determining factor.

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.

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

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.

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

To befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business & corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.

The most practical kind of politics is the politics of Decency.

I am a part of everything that I have read.

Now and then I am asked as to ‘what books a statesman should read,’ and my answer is, poetry and novels – including short stories under the head of novels.

Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.

The death-knell of the republic had rung as soon as the active power became lodged in the hands of those who sought, not to do justice to all citizens, rich and poor alike, but to stand for one special class and for its interests as opposed to the interests of others.

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.

No man in public position can, under penalty of forfeiting the right to the respect of those whose regard he most values, fail as the opportunity comes to do all that in him lies for peace.

I am an American; free born and free bred, where I acknowledge no man as my superior, except for his own worth, or as my inferior, except for his own demerit.

There can be no life without change, and to be afraid of what is different or unfamiliar is to be afraid of life.

Life means change; where there is no change, death comes.

No man should receive a dollar unless that dollar has been fairly earned.

Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don't have the strength.

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

I f he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

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.

Although not a very old man, I have yet lived a great deal in my life, and I have known sorrow too bitter and joy too keen to allow me to become either cast down or elated for more than a very brief period over any success or defeat.

The joy of living is his who has the heart to demand it.

No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency.

A people without children would face a hopeless future; a country without trees is almost as helpless.

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