Background Image

...

I Always Believe In Going Hard At Everything, Whether It Is Latin Or Mathematics, Boxing Or Football, But At The Same Time I Want To Keep The Sense Of Proportion. It Is Never Worth While To Absolutely Exhaust One's Self Or To Take Big Chances Unless For An Adequate Object. I Want You To Keep In Training The Faculties Which Would Make You, If The Need Arose, Able To Put Your Last Ounce Of Pluck And Strength Into A Contest. But I Do Not Want You To Squander These Qualities.

-Theodore Roosevelt

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

I Always Believe In

Theodore Roosevelt

...

I Always Believe In Going Hard At Everything, Whether It Is Latin Or Mathematics, Boxing Or Football, But At The Same Time I Want To Keep The Sense Of Proportion. It Is Never Worth While To Absolutely Exhaust One's Self Or To Take Big Chances Unless For An Adequate Object. I Want You To Keep In Training The Faculties Which Would Make You, If The Need Arose, Able To Put Your Last Ounce Of Pluck And Strength Into A Contest. But I Do Not Want You To Squander These Qualities.

Views: 4

Topic

More From Theodore Roosevelt

To Exist As A Nation, To Prosper As A State, And To Live As A People, We Must Have Trees.

I Have Now Run Up Against An Ugly Snag, The Sunday Excise Law. It Is Altogether Too Strict, But I Have No Honorable Alternative Save To Enforce It And I Am Enforcing It, To The Furious Rage Of The Saloon Keepers, And Of Many Good People Too; For Which I Am Sorry.

The First Requisite Of A Good Citizen In This Republic Of Ours Is That He Shall Be Able And Willing To Pull His Own Weight.

While My Interest In Natural History Has Added Very Little To My Sum Of Achievement, It Has Added Immeasurably To My Sum Of Enjoyment In Life.

I Do Not Care A Rap As To Who Gets Credit For The Work, Provided The Work Is Done.

Do What You Can, With What You Have, Where You Are.

I Must Be Wanting To Be President. Every Young Man Does. But I Won't Let Myself Think Of It; I Must Not, Because If I Do, I Will Begin To Work For It; I'll Be Careful, Calculating, Cautious In Word And Act, And So - I'll Beat Myself.

Look Toward The Stars But Keep Your Feet Firmly On The Ground.

Black Care Rarely Sits Behind The Rider Whose Pace Is Fast Enough.

No Man Who Is Corrupt, No Man Who Condones Corruption In Others, Can Possibly Do His Duty By The Community.

Far And Away The Best Prize That Life Has To Offer Is The Chance To Work Hard At Work Worth Doing.

The One Thing I Want To Leave My Children Is An Honorable Name.

It [the Civil War] Was A Heroic Struggle; And, As Is Inevitable With All Such Struggles, It Had Also A Dark And Terrible Side. Very Much Was Done Of Good, And Much Also Of Evil; And, As Was Inevitable In Such A Period Of Revolution, Often The Same Man Did Both Good And Evil. For Our Great Good Fortune As A Nation, We, The People Of The United States As A Whole, Can Now Afford To Forget The Evil, Or, At Least, To Remember It Without Bitterness, And To Fix Our Eyes With Pride Only On The Good That Was Accomplished.

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.

But This Is Predicated Upon The Man's Becoming In Very Fact An American And Nothing But An American. If He Tries To Keep Segregated With Men Of His Own Origin And Separated From The Rest Of America, Then He Isn't Doing His Part As An American. There Can Be No Divided Allegiance Here. . . We Have Room For But One Language Here, And That Is The English Language, For We Intend To See That The Crucible Turns Our People Out As Americans, Of American Nationality, And Not As Dwellers In A Polyglot Boarding-house; And We Have Room For But One Soul Loyalty, And That Is Loyalty To The American People.

A Man's Usefulness Depends On His Living Up To His Ideals Insofar As He Can. It Is Hard To Fail But It Is Worse Never To Have Tried To Succeed. All Daring And Courage, All Iron Endurance Of Misfortune, Make For A Finer, Nobler Type Of Manhood. 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.

We Face The Future With Our Past And Our Present As Guarantors Of Our Promises; And We Are Content To Stand Or To Fall By The Record Which We Have Made And Are Making.

When She (my Mother) Passed Away, I Kind Of Understood The Commitment That She Made To Make Sure That I Could Stay In Skating. And I Wanted To Live Up To Whatever I Could. Not So Much Win Everything, But Just To Be The Best That I Could Possibly Be, To Honor Her Memory And Everything She Went Through To Make Sure That I Was Given The Opportunities To Be The Best That I Can Be. Not To Be A World Champion Or An Olympic Gold Medalist, But To Be The Best That I Could Be. And That Was The Most Important Thing That Ever Happened In My Career.

I Have Already Lived And Enjoyed As Much Life As Any Nine Other Men I Have Known.

I Wish To Say Seriously To All The Daily Newspapers, To The Republicans, The Democrat, And Socialist Parties, That They Cannot, Month In Month Out And Year In And Year Out, Make The Kind Of Untruthful, Of Bitter Assault That They Have Made And Not Expect That Brutal, Violent Natures, Or Brutal And Violent Characters, Especially When The Brutality Is Accompanied By A Not Very Strong Mind; They Cannot Expect That Such Natures Will Be Unaffected By It.

It Is Of Little Use For Us To Pay Lip-loyalty To The Mighty Men Of The Past Unless We Sincerely Endeavor To Apply To The Problems Of The Present Precisely The Qualities Which In Other Crises Enabled The Men Of That Day To Meet Those Crises.

The Chief Factor In Any Man's Success Or Failure Must Be His Own Character.

'liar' Is Just As Ugly A Word As 'thief,' Because It Implies The Presence Of Just As Ugly A Sin In One Case As In The Other. If A Man Lies Under Oath Or Procures The Lie Of Another Under Oath, If He Perjures Himself Or Suborns Perjury, He Is Guilty Under The Statute Law.

We Want Men Who Will Fix Their Eyes On The Stars, But Who Will Not Forget That Their Feet Must Walk On The Ground.

If We Seek Merely Swollen, Slothful Ease And Ignoble Peace, If We Shrink From The Hard Contests Where Men Must Win At The Hazard Of Their Lives And At The Risk Of All They Hold Dear, Then Bolder And Stronger Peoples Will Pass Us By, And Will Win For Themselves The Domination Of The World.

From The Very Beginning Our People Have Markedly Combined Practical Capacity For Affairs With Power Of Devotion To An Ideal. The Lack Of Either Quality Would Have Rendered The Other Of Small Value.

If You Could Kick The Person In The Pants Responsible For Most Of Your Trouble, You Wouldn't Sit For A Month.

If I Have To Choose Between Peace And Righteousness, I'll Choose Righteousness.

I Have No Business To Feel Downcast Or Querulous Merely Because When So Much As Been Given Me I Have Not Had Even More.

A Typical Vice Of American Politics Is The Avoidance Of Saying Anything Real On Real Issues.

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.

There Can Be No Effective Control Of Corporations While Their Political Activity Remains. To Put An End To It Will Be Neither A Short Nor An Easy Task, But It Can Be Done ... Corporate Expenditures For Political Purposes, And Especially Such Expenditures By Public-service Corporations, Have Supplied One Of The Principal Sources Of Corruption In Our Political Affairs.

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.

It Is Only Through Labor And Painful Effort, By Grim Energy And Resolute Courage, That We Move On To Better Things.

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.

A Man Who Is Good Enough To Shed His Blood For The Country Is Good Enough To Be Given A Square Deal Afterwards.

War Is Not Merely Justifiable, But Imperative Upon Honorable Men, Upon An Honorable Nation, Where Peace Can Only Be Obtained By The Sacrifice Of Conscientious Conviction Or Of National Welfare.

The Wolf Is The Arch Type Of Ravin, The Beast Of Waste And Desolation.

The President Is That Invisible Force That Makes A School Of Fish Suddenly Change Direction, So That Everyone 'ohhs' And 'ahhs' At The Glimmering Mass And Only Later Wonders What Makes Them Move In That Way. I Read Somewhere-_harper's_, I'm Fairly Certain-that The Fish Are Only Avoiding Pockets Of Extra Cold Water.

The Very Reason Why We Object To State Ownership, That It Puts A Stop To Individual Initiative And To The Healthy Development Of Personal Responsibility, Is The Reason Why We Object To An Unsupervised, Unchecked Monopolistic Control In Private Hands. We Urge Control And Supervision By The Nation As An Antidote To The Movement For State Socialism. Those Who Advocate Total Lack Of Regulation, Those Who Advocate Lawlessness In The Business World, Themselves Give The Strongest Impulse To What I Believe Would Be The Deadening Movement Toward Unadulterated State Socialism.

When The Time Of Danger Comes, All Americans, Whatever Their Social Standing, Whatever Their Creed, Whatever The Training They Have Received, No Matter From What Section Of The Country They Have Come, Stand Together As Men, As Americans, And Are Content To Face The Same Fate And Do The Same Duties Because Fundamentally They All Alike Have The Common Purpose To Serve The Glorious Flag Of Their Common Country.

With Self-discipline, All Things Are Possible

Formal Education

In The Grand Canyon, Arizona Has A Natural Wonder Which Is In Kind Absolutely Unparalleled Throughout The Rest Of The World.

Natural Wonders

Let Individuals Contribute As They Desire; But Let Us Prohibit In Effective Fashion All Corporations From Making Contributions For Any Political Purpose, Directly Or Indirectly.

Even In Ordinary Times There Are Very Few Of Us Who Do Not See The Problems Of Life As Through A Glass, Darkly; And When The Glass Is Clouded By The Murk Of Furious Popular Passion, The Vision Of The Best And The Bravest Is Dimmed.

Power Always Brings With It Responsibility.

The Fortunes Amassed Through Corporate Organization Are Now So Large, And Vest Such Power In Those That Wield Them, As To Make It A Matter Of Necessity To Give To The Sovereign - That Is, To The Government, Which Represents The People As A Whole - Some Effective Power Of Supervision Over Their Corporate Use. In Order To Insure A Healthy Social And Industrial Life, Every Big Corporation Should Be Held Responsible By, And Be Accountable To, Some Sovereign Strong Enough To Control Its Conduct.

It Is A Bad Thing For A Nation To Raise And To Admire A False Standard Of Success; And There Can Be No Falser Standard Than That Set By The Deification Of Material Well-being In And For Itself.

If There Is One Thing For Which We Stand In This Country, It Is For Complete Religious Freedom, And It Is An Emphatic Negation Of This Right To Cross-examine A Man On His Religion Before Being Willing To Support Him For Office.

If Given The Choice Between Righteousness And Peace, I Choose Righteousness.

I Enter A Most Earnest Plea That In Our Hurried And Rather Bustling Life Of Today We Do Not Lose The Hold That Our Forefathers Had On The Bible.

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.

Comparison With Something That Is Better Is The Thief Of Joy. Comparison With Something That Is Worse Is A Joy - Full Of Relief And Gratitude! You Cannot Always Choose What Happens To You Or Your Circumstances But You Can Always Choose Your Attitude By What You Choose To Compare Your Experiences Or Circumstances To And Therefore How You Will Feel!! We Can Make Any Experience Either A Heaven Or A Hell By What We Compare It To. Our Emotions Are 'an Inside Job!'

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 Cause Of Disaster.

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.

All Privileges Based On Wealth, And All Emnity To Honest Men Merely Because They Are Wealthy, Are Un-american.

Let Us Speak Courteously, Deal Fairly, And Keep Ourselves Armed And Ready.

Second Amendment

We Must Diligently Strive To Make Our Young Men Decent, God-fearing, Law-abiding, Honor-loving, Justice-doing And Also Fearless And Strong.

No Other President Ever Enjoyed The Presidency As I Did.

The Reader, The Booklover, Must Meet His Own Needs Without Paying Too Much Attention To What His Neighbors Say Those Needs Should Be.

Cowardice In A Race, As In An Individual, Is The Unpardonable Sin.

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.

Asking Permission

Life Brings Sorrows And Joys Alike. It Is What A Man Does With Them - Not What They Do To Him - That Is The True Test Of His Mettle.

It Either Is Or Ought To Be Evident To Everyone That Business Has To Prosper Before Anyone Can Get Any Benefit From It.

There Is No Reason Why People Should Not Call Themselves Cubists, Or Octagonists, Or Parallelopipedonists, Orknights Oftheisoscelestriangle, Or Brothers Of The Cosine, If They So Desire; As Expressing Anything Serious And Permanent, One Term Is As Fatuous As Another.

...to Befoul The Unholy Alliance Between Corrupt Business And Corrupt Politics Is The First Task Of The Statesmanship Of The Day.

Malefactors Of Great Wealth Have Arrogantly Ignored The Public Welfare.

There Are Some Timid Souls That Will Never Know Victory Nor Defeat.

Progress Has Brought Us Both Unbounded Opportunities And Unbridled Difficulties. Thus, The Measure Of Our Civilization Will Not Be That We Have Done Much, But What We Have Done With That Much. I Believe That The Next Half Century Will Determine If We Will Advance The Cause Of Christian Civilization Or Revert To The Horrors Of Brutal Paganism. The Thought Of Modern Industry In The Hands Of Christian Charity Is A Dream Worth Dreaming. The Thought Of Industry In The Hands Of Paganism Is A Nightmare Beyond Imagining. The Choice Between The Two Is Upon Us.

The Dreams Of Golden Glory In The Future Will Not Come True Unless, High Of Heart And Strong Of Hand, By Our Own Mighty Deeds We Make Them Come True.

And It Is Through Strife And The Readiness For Strife That A Man Or A Nation Must Win Greatness. So, Let The World Know That We Are Here And Willing To Pour Out Our Blood, Our Treasure, Our Tears. And That America Is Ready And If Need Be Desirous Of Battle

Nothing Should Be Permitted To Stand In The Way Of The Preservation Of The Forests, And It Is Criminal To Permit Individuals To Purchase A Little Gain For Themselves Through The Destruction Of Forests When This Destruction Is Fatal To The Well-being Of The Whole Country In The Future.

No Great Intellectual Thing Was Ever Done By Great Effort.

Bodily Vigor Is Good, And Vigor Of Intellect Is Even Better, But Far Above Is Character.

The Liar Is No Whit Better Than The Thief, And If His Mendacity Takes The Form Of Slander He May Be Worse Than Most Thieves. It Puts A Premium Upon Knavery Untruthfully To Attack An Honest Man, Or Even With Hysterical Exaggeration To Assail A Bad Man With Untruth.

The Joy In Life Is His Who Has The Heart To Demand It.

Every Expansion Of Civilization Makes For Peace. In Other Words, Every Expansion Of A Great Civilized Power Means A Victory For Law, Order, And Righteousness. ...it Is Only The Warlike Power Of A Civilized People That Can Give Peace To The World.

The Bulk Of Government Is Not Legislation But Administration.

Patriotism Means To Stand By The Country. It Does Not Mean To Stand By The President Or Any Other Public Official, Save Exactly To The Degree In Which He Himself Stands By The Country. It Is Patriotic To Support Him Insofar As He Efficiently Serves The Country. It Is Unpatriotic Not To Oppose Him To The Exact Extent That By Inefficiency Or Otherwise He Fails In His Duty To Stand By The Country. In Either Event, It Is Unpatriotic Not To Tell The Truth, Whether About The President Or Anyone Else.

The Americans Of Other Blood Must Remember That The Man Who In Good Faith And Without Reservations Gives Up Another Country For This Must In Return Receive Exactly The Same Rights, Not Merely Legal, But Social And Spiritual, That Other Americans Proudly Possess. We Of The United States Belong To A New And Separate Nationality. We Are All Americans And Nothing Else, And Each, Without Regard To His Birthplace, Creed, Or National Origin, Is Entitled To Exactly The Same Rights As All Other Americans.

There Are Many Occasions When The Highest Praise One Can Receive Is The Attack Of Some Given Scoundrel.

Ours Is A Government Of Liberty By, Through, And Under The Law. A Great Democracy Must Be Progressive Or It Will Soon Cease To Be Great Or A Democracy.

Mckinley Has No More Backbone Than A Chocolate Eclair.

The Men Of Wealth Who Today Are Trying To Prevent The Regulation And Control Of Their Business In The Interest Of The Public By The Proper Government Authorities Will Not Succeed, In My Judgment, In Checking The Progress Of The Movement. But If They Did Succeed They Would Find That They Had Sown The Wind And Would Surely Reap The Whirlwind, For They Would Ultimately Provoke The Violent Excesses Which Accompany A Reform Coming By Convulsion Instead Of By Steady And Natural Growth.

There Are No Words That Can Tell The Hidden Spirit Of The Wilderness, That Can Reveal Its Mystery, Its Melancholy And Its Charm.

Nowhere, Not At Sea, Does A Man Feel More Lonely Than When Riding Over The Far-reaching, Seemingly Never-ending Plains.

Of All The Questions Which Can Come Before This Nation, Short Of The Actual Preservation Of Its Existence In A Great War, There Is None Which Compares In Importance With The Great Central Task Of Leaving This Land Even A Better Land For Our Descendants Than It Is For Us.

Unless The Man Is Master Of His Soul All Other Kinds Of Mastery Amount To Little.

It's Not The Critic Who Counts, Nor The Man Who Points Out How The Strong Man Stumbles, Or Where The Doer Of The Deeds Could Have Done Better.

Under Government Ownership Corruption Can Flourish Just As Rankly As Under Private Ownership.

The Light Has Gone Out Of My Life.

There Is More Fine Abstract Design In Navajo Rugs Than In All These Modern Paintings.

Our Chief Usefulness To Humanity Rests On Our Combining Power With High Purpose. 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.

It Is Not What We Have That Will Make Us A Great Nation; It Is The Way In Which We Use It.

Use It Or Lose It

The Greatest Privilege And Greatest Duty For Any Man Is To Be Happily Married, And No Other Form Of Success Or Service, For Either Man Or Woman, Can Be Wisely Accepted As A Substitute Or Alternative

In Doing Your Work In The Great World, It Is A Safe Plan To Follow A Rule I Once Heard On The Football Field: Don't Flinch, Don't Fall; Hit The Line Hard.

The Object Of Government Is The Welfare Of The People. The Material Progress And Prosperity Of A Nation Are Desirable Chiefly So Far As They Lead To The Moral And Material Welfare Of All Good Citizens.

Conservation Means Development As Much As It Does Protection.

We Do Not Admire The Man Of Timid Peace. We Admire The Man Who Embodies Victorious Effort; The Man Who Never Wrongs His Neighbor, Who Is Prompt To Help A Friend, But Who Has Those Virile Qualities Necessary To Win In The Stern Strife Of Actual Life.

Americanism Means The Virtues Of Courage, Honor, Justice, Truth, Sincerity, And Hardihood - The Virtues That Made America.

We [must] Hold The Just Balance And Set Ourselves As Resolutely Against Improper Corporate Influence On The One Hand As Against Demagogy And Mob Rule On The Other.

The Human Body Has Two Ends On It: One To Create With And One To Sit On. Sometimes People Get Their Ends Reversed. When This Happens They Need A Kick In The Seat Of The Pants.

Our Flag Is A Proud Flag, And It Stands For Liberty And Civilization. Where It Has Once Floated, There Must Be No Return To Tyranny.

There Is But One Answer To Terrorism And It Is Best Delivered With A Winchester Rifle.

When We Control Business In The Public Interest We Are Also Bound To Encourage It In The Public Interest Or It Will Be A Bad Thing For Everybody And Worst Of All For Those On Whose Behalf The Control Is Nominally Exercised.

If A Man Does Not Have An Ideal And Try To Live Up To It, Then He Becomes A Mean, Base And Sordid Creature, No Matter How Successful.

I Like To See Quentin (roosevelt) 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.

If We Put Corrupt Men In Public Office And Sneeringly Acquiesce In Their Corruptions, Then We Are Wrong Ourselves.

There Are Rainy Days In Autumn And Stormy Days In Winter When The Rocking Chair In Front Of The Fire Simply Demands An Accompanying Book.

In Popular Government Results Worth While Can Only Be Achieved By Men Who Combine Worthy Ideals With Practical Good Sense.

The Worst Of All Fears Is The Fear Of Living

It Is Not Often That A Man Can Make Opportunities For Himself. But He Can Put Himself In Such Shape That When Or If The Opportunities Come He Is Ready.

With Great Victory Comes Great Sacrifice.

The Extermination Of The Buffalo Has Been A Veritable Tragedy Of The Animal World.

The Credit Belongs To The Man Who Is Actually In The Arena..who Errs, Who Comes Short Again And Again; But Who Does Actually Strive To Do The Deeds; Who Spends Himself In A Worthy Cause.

I Enter A Most Earnest Plea That In Our Hurried And Rather Bustling Life Of Today We Do Not Lose The Hold That Our Forefathers Had On The Bible. I Wish To See The Bible Study As Much A Matter Of Course In The Secular Colleges As In The Seminary. No Educated Man Can Afford To Be Ignorant Of The Bible, And No Uneducated Man Can Afford To Be Ignorant Of The Bible.

Every Immigrant Who Comes Here Should Be Required Within Five Years To Learn English Or Leave The Country.

...let Men Express The Intense Admiration, Which I Share With All Other Americans, Of The Record Made By The Marines.

The Farther One Gets Into The Wilderness, The Greater Is The Attraction Of Its Lonely Freedom.

Men With The Muckrake Are Often Indispensable To The Well-being Of Society, But Only If They Know When To Stop Raking The Muck.

Gradually The True Mason Gains Experience In Using These Working Tools And Can Observe Subtler And Subtler Indications Of Personal Flaws.

I Feel Most Emphatically That We Should Not Turn Into Shingles A Tree Which Was Old When The First Egyptian Conqueror Penetrated To The Valley Of The Euphrates.

If A Strong Man Has Not In Him The Lift Toward Lofty Things, His Strength Makes Him Only A Curse To Himself And His Neighbor.

Perhaps The Most Incapable Executive That Ever Filled The Presidential Chair...it Would Be Difficult To Imagine A Man Less Fit To Guide The State With Honor And Safety Through The Stormy Times That Marked The Opening Of The Present Century.

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.

The Constitution Was Made For The People And Not The People For The Constitution.

My Experience...convinced Me That Tea Was Better Than Brandy, And During The Last Six Months In Afica I Took No Brandy, Even When Sick Taking Tea Instead.

We Have Duties To Others, And Duties To Ourselves, And We Cannot Shirk Either.

I Believe In A Graduated Income Tax On Big Fortunes, And In . . . A Graduated Inheritance Tax On Big Fortunes, . . . Increasing Rapidly In Amount With The Size Of The Estate.

Progressive Taxation

The Need For Collecting Large Campaign Funds Would Vanish If Congress Provided An Appropriation For The Proper And Legitimate Expenses Of Each Of The Great National Parties, An Appropriation Ample Enough To Meet The Necessity For Thorough Organization And Machinery, Which Requires A Large Expenditure Of Money. Then The Stipulation Should Be Made That No Party Receiving Campaign Funds From The Treasury Should Accept More Than A Fixed Amount From Any Individual Subscriber Or Donor; And The Necessary Publicity For Receipts And Expenditures Could Without Difficulty Be Provided.

There Are Those Who Believe That A New Modernity Demands A New Morality. What They Fail To Consider Is The Harsh Reality That There Is No Such Thing As A New Morality. There Is Only One Morality . All Else Is Immorality.

[among The Books He Chooses, A Statesman] Ought To Read Interesting Books On History And Government, And Books Of Science And Philosophy; And Really Good Books On These Subjects Are As Enthralling As Any Fiction Ever Written In Prose Or Verse.

Where A Trust Becomes A Monopoly The State Has An Immediate Right To Interfere.

Nothing Could Be More Lonely And Nothing More Beautiful Than The View At Nightfall Across The Prairies To These Huge Hill Masses, When The Lengthening Shadows Had At Last Merged Into One And The Faint After-glow Of The Red Sunset Filled The West.

No Man Is Worth His Salt Who Is Not Ready At All Times To Risk His Well-being, To Risk His Body, To Risk His Life, In A Great Cause.

A Leader Is An Average, Everyday Person Who Is Highly Motivated.

Show Me A Man Who Makes No Mistakes, And I Will Show You A Man Who Doesn't Do Things.

I Always Keep My Weather Eye On The Opposition Of My Seventh House Moon To My First House Mars.

The World Wants The Kind Of Men Who Do Not Shrink From Temporary Defeats In Life; But Come Again And Wrestle Triumph From Defeat.

Temporary Defeat

Speak Softly, I'm Getting My Massage.

One Of The Fundamental Necessities In A Representative Government Such As Ours Is To Make Certain That The Men To Whom The People Delegate Their Power Shall Serve The People By Whom They Are Elected, And Not The Special Interests. I Believe That Every National Officer, Elected Or Appointed, Should Be Forbidden To Perform Any Service Or Receive Any Compensation, Directly Or Indirectly, From Interstate Corporations; And A Similar Provision Could Not Fail To Be Useful Within The States.

The Fool Who Has Not Sense To Discriminate Between What Is Good And What Is Bad Is Well Nigh As Dangerous As The Man Who Does Discriminate And Yet Chooses The Bad.

Don't Hit At All If It Is Honorably Possible To Avoid Hitting; But Never Hit Soft.

Thorough Knowledge

We Cannot Afford To Differ On The Question Of Honesty If We Expect Our Republic Permanently To Endure. Honesty Is Not So Much A Credit As An Absolute Prerequisite To Efficient Service To The Public. Unless A Man Is Honest, We Have No Right To Keep Him In Public Life; It Matters Not How Brilliant His Capacity.

Every Man Among Us Is More Fit To Meet The Duties And Responsibilities Of Citizenship Because Of The Perils Over Which, In The Past, The Nation Has Triumphed; Because Of The Blood And Sweat And Tears, The Labor And The Anguish, Through Which, In The Days That Have Gone, Our Forefathers Moved On To Triumph.

In The Grand Canyon, Arizona Has A Natural Wonder Which Is In Kind Absolutely Unparalleled Throughout The Rest Of The World. I Want To Ask You To Keep This Great Wonder Of Nature As It Now Is. I Hope You Will Not Have A Building Of Any Kind, Not A Summer Cottage, A Hotel Or Anything Else, To Mar The Wonderful Grandeur, The Sublimity, The Great Loneliness And Beauty Of The Canyon. Leave It As It Is. You Cannot Improve On It. The Ages Have Been At Work On It, And Man Can Only Mar It.

In The Great Battle Of Life, No Brilliancy Of Intellect, No Perfection Of Bodily Development, Will Count When Weighed In The Balance Against The Assemblage Of Virtues, Active And Passive, Of Moral Qualities Which We Group Together Under The Name Of Character.

A Just War Is In The Long Run Far Better For A Man's Soul Than The Most Prosperous Peace.

There Should Be At Least Ten Times The Number Of Rifles In The Country As There Are Now.

There Is No Effort Without Error Or Shortcoming.

There Is Something To Be Said For Government By A Great Aristocracy Which Has Furnished Leaders To The Nation In Peace And War For Generations; Even A Democrat Like Myself Must Admit This. But There Is Absolutely Nothing To Be Said For Government By A Plutocracy, For Government By Men Very Powerful In Certain Lines And Gifted With The Money Touch, But With Ideals Which In Their Essence Are Merely Those Of So Many Glorified Pawnbrokers.

From Time To Time, Little Men Will Find Fault With What You Have Done...but They Will Go Down The Stream Like Bubbles, They Will Vanish. But The Work You Have Done Will Remain For The Ages.

So That His Place Shall Never Be With Those Cold And Timid Souls Who Knew Neither Victory Nor Defeat.

In Other Words, Character Is Far More Important Than Intellect To The Race As To The Individual. We Need Intellect, And There Is No Reason Why We Should Not Have It Together With Character; But If We Must Choose Between The Two We Choose Character Without A Moment's Hesitation.

An Airedale Can Do Anything Any Other Dog Can Do And Then Whip The Other Dog If He Has To.

He Who Makes No Mistakes Makes No Progress.

I Highly Venerate The Masonic Institution, Under The Fullest Persuasion That, When Its Principles Are Acknowledged And Its Laws And Precepts Obeyed, It Comes Nearest To The Christian Religion, In Its Moral Effects And Influence, Of Any Institution With Which I Am Acquainted.

The Hardest Lessons To Learn Are Those That Are The Most Obvious.

There Can Be No Life Without Change, And To Be Afraid Of What Is Different Or Unfamiliar Is To Be Afraid Of Life.

At The Risk Of Repetition Let Me Say Again That My Plea Is Not For Immunity To, But For The Most Unsparing Exposure Of, The Politician Who Betrays His Trust, Of The Big Business Man Who Makes Or Spends His Fortune In Illegitimate Or Corrupt Ways. There Should Be A Resolute Effort To Hunt Every Such Man Out Of The Position He Has Disgraced. Expose The 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.

The Performance Of Duty, And Not An Indulgence In Vapid Ease And Vapid Pleasure, Is All That Makes Life Worth While.

We Have A Right To Expect That The Best Trained, The Best Educated Men On The Pacific Slope, The Rocky Mountains, And Great Plains States Will Take The Lead In The Preservation And Right Use Of Forests, In Securing The Right Use Of Waters, And In Seeing That Our Land Policy Is Not Twisted From Its Original Purpose, But Is Perpetuated By Amendment, By Change When Such Change Is Necessary In The Life Of That Purpose, The Purpose Being To Turn The Public Domain Into Farms Each To Be The Property Of The Man Who Actually Tills It And Makes His Home In It.

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.

Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy.

Difficult Times

No Man Is Justified In Doing Evil On The Ground Of Expedience.

Conservation And Rural-life Policies Are Really Two Sides Of The Same Policy; And Down At The Bottom This Policy Rests Upon The Fundamental Law That Neither Man Nor Nation Can Prosper Unless, In Dealing With The Present, Thought Is Steadily Given For The Future.

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.

The Teachings Of The Bible Are So Interwoven And Entwined With Our Whole Civic And Social Life That It Would Be Literally Impossible For Us To Figure To Ourselves What That Life Would Be If These Teachings Were Removed.

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.

It's Not The Critic Who Counts.

There Never Has Been Devised, And There Never Will Be Devised, Any Law Which Will Enable A Man To Succeed Save By The Exercise Of Those Qualities Which Have Always Been The Prerequisites Of Success - The Qualities Of Hard Work, Of Keen Intelligence, Of Unflinching Will.

It Is Essential That There Should Be Organization Of Labor. This Is An Era Of Organization. Capital Organizes And Therefore Labor Must Organize.

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.

A Good Shot Must Necessarily Be A Good Man Since The Essence Of Good Marksmanship Is Self-control And Self-control Is The Essential Quality Of A Good Man.

Men With The Muckrake Are Often Indispensable To The Well-being Of Society, But Only If They Know When To Stop Raking The Muck, And To Look Upward To The Celestial Crown Above Them.... If They Gradually Grow To Feel That The Whole World Is Nothing But Muck Their Power Of Usefulness Is Gone.

A Small Politician, Of Low Capacity And Mean Surroundings, Proud To Act As The Servile Tool Of Men Worse Than Himself But Also Stronger And Abler.

Do Nothing To Mar Its Grandeur ... Keep It For Your Children, Your Children's Children, And All Who Come After You, As The One Great Sight Which Every American Should See.

In Foreign Affairs We Must Make Up Our Minds That Whether We Wish It Or Not, We Are A Great People And Must Play A Great Part In The World. It Is Not Open To Us To Choose Whether We Will Play That Great Part Or Not.

We Do Not Admire A Man Of Timid Peace.

There Is Something To Be Said For Government By A Great Aristocracy Which Has Furnished Leaders To The Nation In Peace And War For Generations; Even A Democrat Like Myself Must Admit This.

A Healthy State Can Exist Only When The Men And Women Who Make It Up Lead Clean, Vigorous, Healthy Lives; When The Children Are So Trained That They Shall Endeavor, Not To Shirk Difficulties, But To Overcome Them; Not To Seek Ease, But To Know How To Wrest Triumph From Toil And Risk.

Love Of Peace Is Common Among Weak, Short-sighted, Timid, And Lazy Persons; And On The Other Hand Courage Is Found Among Many Men Of Evil Temper And Bad Character. Neither Quality Shall By Itself Avail. Justice Among The Nations Of Mankind, And The Uplifting Of Humanity, Can Be Brought About Only By Those Strong And Daring Men Who With Wisdom Love Peace, But Who Love Righteousness More Than Peace.

Thank God For The Iron In The Blood Of Our Fathers

Everything Is Un-american That Tends Either To Government By A Plutocracy Or Government By A Mob. To Divide Along The Lines Of Section Or Caste Or Creed Is Un-american. All Privileges Based On Wealth, And All Enmity To Honest Men Merely Because They Are Wealthy, Are Un-american-both Of Them Equally So. The Things That Will Destroy America Are Prosperity-at-any-price, Peace-at-any-price, Safety-first Instead Of Duty-first, The Love Of Soft Living And The Get-rich-quick Theory Of Life.

Just As You Believe You May Have Already Halfway There

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.

It's Not The Critic That Counts.

There Is A Point, Of Course, Where A Man Must Take The Isolated Peak And Break With All His Associates For Clear Principle; But Until That Time Comes He Must Work, If He Would Be Of Use, With Men As They Are. As Long As The Good In Them Overbalances The Evil, Let Him Work With Them For The Best That Can Be Obtained.

In Every Community There Are Little Knots Of Fantastic Extremists Who Loudly Proclaim That They Are Striving For Righteousness, And Who, In Reality, Do Their Feeble Best For Unrighteousness. Just As The Upright Politician Should Hold In Peculiar Scorn The Man Who Makes The Name Of Politician A Reproach And A Shame, So The Genuine Reformer Should Realize That The Cause He Champions Is Especially Jeopardized By The Mock Reformer Who Does What He Can To Make Reform A Laughingstock Among Decent Men.

No Triumph Of Peace Is Quite So Great As The Supreme Triumphs Of War.

A Churchless Community, A Community Where Men Have Abandoned And Scoffed At Or Ignored Their Religious Needs, Is A Community On The Rapid Downgrade.

The Absence Of Effective State, And, Especially, National, Restraint Upon Unfair Money-getting Has Tended To Create A Small Class Of Enormously Wealthy And Economically Powerful Men, Whose Chief Object Is To Hold And Increase Their Power. The Prime Need Is To Change The Conditions Which Enable These Men To Accumulate Power Which Is Not For The General Welfare That They Should Hold Or Exercise. We Grudge No Man A Fortune Which Represents His Own Power And Sagacity, When Exercised With Entire Regard To The Welfare Of His Fellows.

It Is Character That Counts In A Nation As In A Man.

The Little Owls Call To Each Other With Tremulous, Quavering Voices Throughout The Livelong Night, As They Sit In The Creaking Trees.

Of All The Officers Of The Government, Those Of The Department Of Justice Should Be Kept Most Free From Any Suspicion Of Improper Action On Partisan Or Factional Grounds, So That There Shall Be Gradually A Growth, Even Though A Slow Growth, In The Knowledge That The Federal Courts And The Representatives Of The Federal Department Of Justice Insist On Meting Out Even-handed Justice To All.

There Must Be No Division By Class Hatred, Whether This Hatred Be That Of Creed Against Creed, Nationality Against Nationality, Section Against Section, Or Men Of One Social Or Industrial Condition Against Men Of Another Social And Industrial Condition. We Must Ever Judge Each Individual On His Own Conduct And Merits, And Not On His Membership In Any Class, Whether That Class Be Based On Theological, Social, Or Industrial Considerations.

Nobody Cares How Much You Know, Until They Know How Much You Care.

A Really Great People, Proud And High Spirited, Would Face All The Disasters Of War Rather Than Purchase That Base Prosperity Which Is Bought At The Price Of National Honor.

While President, I Have Been President - Emphatically.

There Are Good Men And Bad Men Of All Nationalities, Creeds And Colors; And If This World Of Ours Is Ever To Become What We Hope Some Day It May Become, It Must Be By The General Recognition That The Man's Heart And Soul, The Man's Worth And Actions, Determine His Standing.

Trending Author

Chazz Palminteri

Category