Theodore Roosevelt
26th President of the United States, 1858-1919
45 quotes.
Quotes by Theodore Roosevelt
- A life of slothful ease, a life of that peace which springs merely from lack either of desire or of power to strive after great things, is as little worthy of a nation as of an individual.
- Any man at times will stumble, and it is then our duty to lift him up and set him on his feet again; but no man can be permanently carried, for if he expects to be carried he shows that he is not worth carrying.
- Believe you can and you’re halfway there.
- But above mind and above body stands character - the sum of those qualities which we mean when we speak of a man's force and courage, of his good faith and sense of honor.
- Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
- Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in that grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.
- Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.
- Honesty first; then courage; then brains – and all are indispensable.
- 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.
- I have always been fond of the West African proverb "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far."
- I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life; I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.
- I preach to you, then, my countrymen, that our country calls not for the life of ease but for the life of strenuous endeavor.
- I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life.
- I would rather risk wearing out than rusting out.
- If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble; and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power.
- 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.
- In short, in life, as in a football game, the principle to follow is: Hit the line hard; don't foul and don't shirk, but hit the line hard!
- In the long run, the most unpleasant truth is a safer companion than a pleasant falsehood.
- It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things.
- It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.
- It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
- It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.
- It is true of the Nation, as of the individual, that the greatest doer must also be a great dreamer.
- Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but in finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong.
- Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground.
- Knowing what's right doesn't mean much unless you do what's right.
- No amount of honesty will avail if he is not also brave and wise.
- No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency.
- No one of us can do everything, but each of us can do something, and if we work together the aggregate of these somethings will be very considerable.
- No worse wrong can be done by a man to his children than to teach them to go through life endeavoring to shirk difficulties instead of meeting them and overcoming them.
- Nothing worth having was ever achieved without effort.
- The best way to raise any one is to join with him in an effort whereby both you and he are raised by each helping the other.
- The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.
- The great man is always the man of mighty effort, and usually the man whom grinding need has trained to mighty effort.
- The only safe rule is to promise little, and faithfully to keep every promise; to "speak softly and carry a big stick.
- The work may be done in a thousand different ways—with the brain or the hands, in the study, the field, or the workshop—if it is honest work, honestly done and well worth doing, that is all we have a right to ask.
- The worst lesson that can be taught a man is to rely upon others and to whine over his sufferings.
- To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.
- We are face to face with our destiny and we must meet it with high and resolute courage. For us is the life of action, of strenuous performance of duty; let us live in the harness, striving mightily; let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out.
- We must be true to ourselves, or else, in the long run, we shall be false to all others.