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I Can No More Explain Why I Like "natural History" Than Why I Like California Canned Peaches; Nor Why I Do Not Care For That Enormous Brand Of Natural History Which Deals With Invertebrates Any More Than Why I Do Not Care For Brandied Peaches. All I Can Say Is That Almost As Soon As I Began To Read At All I Began To Like To Read About The Natural History Of Beasts And Birds And The More Formidable Or Interesting Reptiles And Fishes.

-Theodore Roosevelt

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I Can No More

Theodore Roosevelt

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I Can No More Explain Why I Like "natural History" Than Why I Like California Canned Peaches; Nor Why I Do Not Care For That Enormous Brand Of Natural History Which Deals With Invertebrates Any More Than Why I Do Not Care For Brandied Peaches. All I Can Say Is That Almost As Soon As I Began To Read At All I Began To Like To Read About The Natural History Of Beasts And Birds And The More Formidable Or Interesting Reptiles And Fishes.

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Rattlesnakes Are Only Too Plentiful Everywhere; Along The River Bottoms, In The Broken, Hilly Ground, And On The Prairies And The Great Desert Wastes Alike...if It Can It Will Get Out Of The Way, And Only Coils Up In Its Attitude Of Defence When It Believes That It Is Actually Menaced.

Never Trust A Man Who Says He Is Only A Little Crooked, And That The Crookedness Is Exercised In Your Interest.

Mckinley Shows All The Background Of A Chocolate Eclair.

No President Has Ever Enjoyed Himself As Much As I?

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.

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.

I Never Keep Boys Waiting. It's A Hard Trial For A Boy To Wait.

I Have Always Said I Would Not Have Been President Had It Not Been For My Experience In North Dakota.

Freedom Is Not A Gift Which Can Be Enjoyed Save By Those Shown Themselves Worthy Of It.

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

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

... Looked At From The Standpoint Of The Ultimate Result, There Was Little Real Difference To The Indian Whether The Land Was Taken By Treaty Or By War. ... No Treaty Could Be Satisfactory To The Whites, No Treaty Served The Needs Of Humanity And Civilization, Unless It Gave The Land To The Americans As Unreservedly As Any Successful War.

A True Forest Is Not Merely A Storehouse Full Of Wood, But, As It Were, A Factory Of Wood.

I Dream Of Men Who Take The Next Step Instead Of Worrying About The Next Thousand Steps.

Much Of The Discussion About Socialism And Individualism Is Entirely Pointless, Because Of Failure To Agree On Terminology.

I Don't Think Any President Ever Enjoyed Himself More Than I Did. Moreover, I Don't Think Any Ex-president Ever Enjoyed Himself More.

When They Call The Roll In The Senate, The Senators Do Not Know Whether To Answer 'present' Or 'not Guilty.'

It Is Not The Critic Who Counts...the Credit Belongs To The Man Who Is Actually In The Arena.

I Put Myself In The Way Of Things Happening, And They Happened.

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.

Any Political Movement Directed Against Any Body Of Our Fellow-citizens Because Of Their Religious Creed Is A Grave Offense Against American Principles And American Institutions. It Is A Wicked Thing Either To Support Or Oppose A Man Because Of The Creed He Possesses. . . . Such A Movement Directly Contravenes The Spirit Of The Constitution Itself.

It Is Better To Be Faithful Than Famous.

There Is Need Of A Sound Body, And Even More Need Of A Sound Mind. 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.

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.

These International Bankers And Rockefeller Standard Oil Interests Control The Majority Of Newspapers And The Columns Of These Papers To Club Into Submission Or Drive Out Of Public Office Officials Who Refuse To Do The Bidding Of The Powerful Corrupt Cliques Which Compose The Invisible Government.

We Shall Make Mistakes; And If We Let These Mistakes Frighten Us From Our Work We Shall Show Ourselves Weaklings.

Making Mistakes

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.

The Men And Women Who Have The Right Ideals . . . Are Those Who Have The Courage To Strive For The Happiness Which Comes Only With Labor And Effort And Self-sacrifice, And Those Whose Joy In Life Springs In Part From Power Of Work And Sense Of Duty.

It Is Difficult To Make Our Material Condition Better By The Best Law, But It Is Easy Enough To Ruin It By Bad Laws.

The Weakling And The Coward Cannot Be Saved By Honesty Alone; But Without Honesty The Brave And Able Man Is Merely A Civic Wild Beast Who Should Be Hunted Down By Every Lover Of Righteousness. No Man Who Is Corrupt, No Man Who Condones Corruption In Others, Can Possibly Do His Duty By The Community.

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

When Liberty Becomes License, Some Form Of One-man Power Is Not Far Distant.

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

You, The Sons Of The Pioneers, If You Are True To Your Ancestry, Must Make Your Lives As Worthy As They Made Theirs. They Sought For True Success, And Therefore They Did Not Seek Ease. They Knew That Success Comes Only To Those Who Lead The Life Of Endeavor

If Elected, I Shall See To It That Every Man Has A Square Deal, No Less And No More.

Never Hit If You Can Help It, But When You Have To, Hit Hard. Never Hit Soft. You'll Never Get Any Thanks For Hitting Soft.

The Country Is The Place For Children, And If Not The Country, A City Small Enough So That One Can Get Out Into The Country.

Our Government, National And State, Must Be Freed From The Sinister Influence Or Control Of Special Interests. Exactly As The Special Interests Of Cotton And Slavery Threatened Our Political Integrity Before The Civil War, So Now The Great Special Business Interests Too Often Control And Corrupt The Men And Methods Of Government For Their Own Profit. We Must Drive The Special Interests Out Of Politics.

Almost Every Man Who Has By His Life-work Added To The Sum Of Human Achievement Of Which The Race Is Proud, Of Which Our People Are Proud, Almost Every Such Man Has Based His Life-work Largely Upon The Teachings Of The Bible

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.

There Is No Patent Recipe For Getting Good Citizenship. You Get It By Applying The Old, Old Rules Of Decent Conduct, The Rules In Accordance With Which Decent Men Have Had To Shape Their Lives From The Beginning .. Fundamental Precepts, Put Forth In The Bible And Embodied Consciously Or Unconsciously In The Code Of Morals Of Every Great And Successful Nation From Antiquity To Modern Times.

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.

We Are The Heirs Of The Ages

To Discriminate Against A Thoroughly Upright Citizen Because He Belongs To Some Particular Church, Or Because, Like Abraham Lincoln, He Has Not Avowed His Allegiance To Any Church, Is An Outrage Against The Liberty Of Conscience, Which Is One Of The Foundations Of American Life.

Work Hard At Work Worth Doing.

Nothing In The World Is Worth Having Or Worth Doing Unless It Means Effort, Pain, Difficulty… 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.

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.

Oh, If Only I Could Be President And Congress, Too, Just For Ten Minutes.

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.

Those Who Oppose All Reform Will Do Well To Remember That Ruin In Its Worst Form Is Inevitable If Our National Life Brings Us Nothing Better Than Swollen Fortunes For The Few And The Triumph In Both Politics And Business Of A Sordid And Selfish Materialism.

For Those Who Fight For It Life Has A Flavor The Sheltered Will Never Know

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.

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.

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

Don't Foul, Don't Flinch-hit The Line Hard.

The One Characteristic More Essential Than Any Other Is Foresight... It Should Be The Growing Nation With A Future Which Takes The Long Look Ahead.

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

Americans Learn Only From Catastrophe And Not From Experience.

Fertile Plains, Every Foot Of Them Tilled, Are Of The First Necessity; But Great Natural Playgrounds Of Mountain, Forest, Cliff-walled Lake, And Brawling Brook Are Also Necessary To The Full And Many-sided Development Of A Fine Race.

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

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

Conservation Means Development As Much As It Does Protection. A Man's Usefulness Depends Upon His Living Up To His Ideals Insofar As He Can.

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!'

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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.

All The Resources We Need Are In The Mind.

If An American Is To Amount To Anything He Must Rely Upon Himself, And Not Upon The State; He Must Take Pride In His Own Work, Instead Of Sitting Idle To Envy The Luck Of Others. He Must Face Life With Resolute Courage, Win Victory If He Can, And Accept Defeat If He Must, Without Seeking To Place On His Fellow Man A Responsibility Which Is Not Theirs.

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.

I Am A Man Who Believes With All Fervor And Intensity In Moderate Progress. Too Often Men Who Believe In Moderation Believe In It Only Moderately And Tepidly And Leave Fervor To The Extremists Of The Two Sides - The Extremists Of Reaction And The Extremists Of Progress. Washington, Lincoln . . . Are Men Who, To My Mind, Stand As The Types Of What Wide, Progressive Leadership Should Be.

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.

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.

If There Ever Was A Pursuit Which Stultified Itself By Its Very Conditions, It Is The Pursuit Of Pleasure As The All-sufficing End Of Life. Happiness Cannot Come To Any Man Capable Of Enjoying True Happiness Unless It Comes As The Sequel To Duty Well And Honestly Done. To Do That Duty You Need To Have More Than One Trait. From The Greatest To The Smallest, Happiness And Usefulness Are Largely Found In The Same Soul, And The Joy Of Life Is Won In Its Deepest And Truest Sense Only By Those Who Have Not Shirked Life's Burdens.

My Position As Regards The Monied Interests Can Be Put In A Few Words. In Every Civilized Society Property Rights Must Be Carefully Safeguarded; Ordinarily And In The Great Majority Of Cases, Human Rights And Property Rights Are Fundamentally And In The Long Run, Identical; But When It Clearly Appears That There Is A Real Conflict Between Them, Human Rights Must Have The Upper Hand; For Property Belongs To Man And Not Man To Property.

We Stand At Armageddon And We Battle For The Lord.

There Is Superstition In Science Quite As Much As There Is Superstition In Theology, And It Is All The More Dangerous Because Those Suffering From It Are Profoundly Convinced That They Are Freeing Themselves From All Superstition.

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

We Sincerely And Earnestly Believe In Peace; But If Peace And Justice Conflict, We Scorn The Man Who Would Not Stand For Justice Though The Whole World Came In Arms Against Him.

Be Practical As Well As Generous In Your Ideals. Keep Your Eyes On The Stars, But Remember To Keep Your Feet On The Ground.

Generous Spirit

Rarely Has Any People Enjoyed Greater Prosperity Than We Are Now Enjoying. For This We Render Heartfelt And Solemn Thanks To The Giver Of Good; And We Seek To Praise Him -not By Words Only -but By Deeds, By The Way In Which We Do Our Duty To Ourselves And To Our Fellow Men.

Nothing Worth Having Was Ever Achieved Without Effort.

Fitness Motivational

The First Requisite Of A Good Citizen In This Republic Of Ours Is That He Shall Be Able And Willing To Pull His Weight; That He Shall Not Be A Mere Passenger, But Shall Do His Share In The Work That Each Generation Of Us Finds Ready To Hand; And, Furthermore, That In Doing His Work He Shall Show, Not Only The Capacity For Sturdy Self-help, But Also Self-respecting Regard For The Rights Of Others.

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. 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 At Best Knows In The End The Triumph Of High Achievement, And Who At Worst, If He Fails, At Least Fails While Daring Greatly.

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

Let Us Rather Run The Risk Of Wearing Out Than Rusting Out.

Behind The Ostensible Government Sits Enthroned An Invisible Government Owing No Allegiance And Acknowledging No Responsibility To The People.

Every Man Owes Some Of His Time To The Upbuilding Of The Profession To Which He Belongs.

Just As Lincoln Got Contradictory Advice From The Extremists Of Both Sides . . . So Now I Have To Guard Myself Against The Extremists Of Both Sides.

From Reading Of The People I Admired - Ranging From The Soldiers Of Valley Forge And Morgan's Riflemen To My Southern Forefathers And Kinfolk - I Felt A Great Admiration For Men Who Were Fearless And Who Could Hold Their Own In The World. And I Had A Great Desire To Be Like Them.

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

Alike For The Nation And The Individual, The One Indispensable Requisite Is Character.

Massive Potential You Have And, In Recognition Of All This, Would You Mind Having Your Salary Halved.

The Words Of The Declaration Of Independence, As Given Effect By Washington...are To Be Accepted As Real, And Not As Empty Phrases...that In Very Truth This Is A Government By The People Themselves, That The Constitution Is Theirs, That The Courts Are Theirs, That All The Government Agents And Agencies Are Theirs... It Is For The People Themselves Finally To Decide All Questions Of Public Policy And To Have Their Decision Made Effective...we Here, In America, Hold In Our Hands The Hope Of The World.

In A Crisis, The Man Worth His Salt Is The Man Who Meets The Needs Of The Situation In Whatever Way Is Necessary.

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.

Unrestrained Greed Means The Ruin Of The Great Woods And The Drying Up Of The Sources Of The Rivers.

Comparison Is The Thief Of Joy.

Life Is As If You Were Traveling A Ridge Crest. You Have The Gulf Of Inefficiency On One Side And The Gulf Of Wickedness On The Other, And It Helps Not To Have Avoided One Gulf If You Fall Into The Other.

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

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.

My Hat Is In The Ring.

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.

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.

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.

Property Belongs To Man And Not Man To Property.

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. This Is True About Mr. Wilson Now And It Has Been True About All Our Presidents In The Past. It Is Our Duty At All Times To Tell The Truth About The President And About Every One Else, Save In The Cases Where To Tell The Truth At The Moment Would Benefit The Public Enemy.

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.

I Do Not Believe There Was Ever A Life More Attractive Than Life On A Cattle Farm.

The First Duty Of An American Citizen, Then, Is That He Shall Work In Politics.

All Contributions By Corporations To Any Political Committee Or For Any Political Purpose Should Be Forbidden By Law

A Man Must First Care For His Own Household Before He Can Be Of Use To The State. But No Matter How Well He Cares For His Household, He Is Not A Good Citizen Unless He Also Takes Thought Of The State. In The Same Way, A Great Nation Must Think Of Its Own Internal Affairs; And Yet It Cannot Substantiate Its Claim To Be A Great Nation Unless It Also Thinks Of Its Position In The World At Large.

No Greater Wrong Can Ever Be Done Than To Put A Good Man At The Mercy Of A Bad, While Telling Him Not To Defend Himself Or His Fellows; In No Way Can The Success Of Evil Be Made Surer Or Quicker.

You Cannot Create Prosperity By Law. Sustained Thrift, Industry, Application, Intelligence, Are The Only Things That Ever Do, Or Ever Will, Create Prosperity. But You Can Very Easily Destroy Prosperity By Law.

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.

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.

To Announce There Must Be No Criticism Of The President Or That We Are To Stand With The President, Right Or Wrong, Is Not Only Unpatriotic And Servile, But Is Morally Treasonable To The American Public.

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.

A Healthy-minded Boy Should Feel Hearty Contempt For The Coward And Even More Hearty Indignation For The Boy Who Bullies Girls Or Small Boys, Or Tortures Animals.

I Stand For The Square Deal. I Mean Not Merely That I Stand For Fair Play Under The Present Rules Of The Game, But That I Stand For Having Those Rules Changed So As To Work For A More Substantial Equality Of Opportunity And Of Reward For Equally Good Service.

There Is No Room In This Country For Hyphenated Americanism.

A Nation That Still Needs To Distinguish Between Stealing An Election, And Stealing A New Pair Of Shoes, Is Not Completely Civilized Yet.

The Labor Unions Shall Have A Square Deal, And The Corporations Shall Have A Square Deal, And In Addition, All Private Citizens Shall Have A Square Deal.

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.

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

In A Civilized And Cultivated Country, Wild Animals Only Continue To Exist At All When Preserved By Sportsmen.

With A Great Moral Issue Involved, Neutrality Does Not Serve Righteousness; For To Be Neutral Between Right And Wrong Is To Serve Wrong.

To Have Acted Otherwise ... Would Have Been The Betrayal Of The Interests Of The United States.

If We Would Have Our Citizens Contented And Law-abiding, We Must Not Sow The Seeds Of Discontent In Childhood By Denying Children Their Birthright Of Play.

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

I Care Not What Others Think Of What I Do, But I Care Very Much About What I Think Of What I Do! That Is Character!

Leave It As It Is. The Ages Have Been At Work On It And Man Can Only Mar It.

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.

I Believe That This Republic Will Endure For Many Centuries. If So There Will Doubtless Be Among Its Presidents Protestants And Catholics, And Very Probably At Some Time, Jews. I Have Consistently Tried While President To Act In Relation To My Fellow Americans Of Catholic Faith As I Hope That Any Future President Who Happens To Be Catholic Will Act Towards His Fellow Americans Of Protestant Faith. Had I Followed Any Other Course I Should Have Felt That I Was Unfit To Represent The American People.

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.

Certain Rich Men, Whose Lives Are Evil And Corrupt, Are The Representatives Of Predatory Wealth Accumulated By All Forms Of Inequity, From The Oppression Of Wage Workers To Unfair Methods Of Crushing Out Competition.

In The History Of Mankind Many Republics Have Risen, Have Flourished For A Less Or Greater Time, And Then Have Fallen Because Their Citizens Lost The Power Of Governing Themselves And Thereby Of Governing Their State; And In No Way Has This Loss Of Power Been So Often And So Clearly Shown As In The Tendency To Turn The Government Into A Government Primarily For The Benefit Of One Class Instead Of A Government For The Benefit Of The People As A Whole.

We Must All Either Wear Out Or Rust Out, Every One Of Us. My Choice Is To Wear Out.

Never Throughout History Has A Man Who Lived A Life Of Ease Left A Name Worth Remembering.

Just As You Believe You May Have Already Halfway There

The Government Is Us; We Are The Government, You And I."- Theodore Roosevelt

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.

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

If, In Any Individual, University Training Produces A Taste For Refined Idleness, A Distaste For Sustained Effort, A Barren Intellectual Arrogance, Or A Sense Of Superfluous Aloofness From The World Of Real Men Who Do The World's Real Work, Then It Has Harmed That Individual.

Intellectual Arrogance

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.

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.

Power Always Brings With It Responsibility.

It's Not The Critic That Counts.

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.

No Ability, No Strength And Force, No Power Of Intellect Or Power Of Wealth, Shall Avail Us, If We Have Not The Root Of Right Living In Us.

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.

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.

Nine Tenths Of Wisdom Consists In Being Wise In Time.

The Lives Of Truest Heroism Are Those In Which There Are No Great Deeds To Look Back Upon. It Is The Little Things Well Done That Go To Make Up A Truly Successful And Good Life.

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.

Wherever You Are

Success, The Real Success, Does Not Depend Upon The Position You Hold But Upon How You Carry Yourself In That Position.

I Do Not Believe There Ever Was Any Life More Attractive To A Vigorous Young Fellow Than Life On A Cattle Ranch In Those Days. It Was A Fine, Healthy Life, Too; It Taught A Man Self-reliance, Hardihood, And The Value Of Instant Decision...i Enjoyed The Life To The Full.

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

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 One Being Abhorrent To The Powers Above The Earth And Under Them Is The Hyphenated American

A Soft, Easy Life Is Not Worth Living, If It Impairs The Fibre Of Brain And Heart And Muscle. We Must Dare To Be Great; And We Must Realize That Greatness Is The Fruit Of Toil And Sacrifice And High 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.

Get Action. Seize The Moment. Man Was Never Intended To Become An Oyster.

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.

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

No Nation Deserves To Exist If It Permits Itself To Lose The Stern And Virile Virtues; And This Without Regard To Whether The Loss Is Due To The Growth Of A Heartless And All-absorbing Commercialism, To Prolonged Indulgence In Luxury And Soft, Effortless Ease, Or To The Deification Of A Warped And Twisted Sentimentality.

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.

Kings And Such Are Just As Funny As Politicians.

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.

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.

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.

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 Have Room In This Country For But One Flag, The Stars And Stripes!

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

A Party Should Not Contain Utterly Incongruous Elements, Radically Divided On The Real Issues, And Acting Together Only On False And Dead Issues Insincerely Painted As Real And Vital. It Should Not In The Several States As Well As In The Nation Be Prostituted To The Service Of The Baser Type Of Political Boss. It Should Be So Composed That There Should Be A Reasonable Agreement In The Actions Taken By It Both In The Nation And In The Several States. Judged By These Standards, Both Of The Old Parties Break Down.

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

No Man Should Receive A Dollar Unless That Dollar Has Been Fairly Earned.

Progressive Taxation

In Battle, The Only Bullets That Count Are Those That Hit.

The Weakling And The Coward Are Out Of Place In A Strong And Free Community. In A Republic Like Ours The Governing Class Is Composed Of The Strong Men Who Take The Trouble To Do The Work Of Government; And If You Are Too Timid Or Too Fastidious Or Too Careless To Do Your Part In This Work, Then You Forfeit Your Right To Be Considered One Of The Governing And You Become One Of The Governed Insteadone Of The Driven Cattle Of The Political Arena.

I Shall Ask You To Be As Quiet As Possible. I Don’t Know Whether You Fully Understand That I Have Just Been Shot — But It Takes More Than That To Kill A Bull Moose.

Don't Limit Your Challenges - Challenge Your Limits. Don't Spread Patriotism Too Thin.

We Draw The Line Against Misconduct, Not Against Wealth.

It May Be That At Some Time In The Dim Future Of The Race The Need For War Will Vanish: But That Time Is Yet Ages Distant. As Yet No Nation Can Hold Its Place In The World, Or Can Do Any Work Really Worth Doing, Unless It Stands Ready To Guard Its Right With An Armed Hand.

No People Ever Yet Benefited By Riches If Their Prosperity Corrupted Their Virtue.

With Great Victory Comes Great Sacrifice.

We Of An Older Generation Can Get Along With What We Have, Though With Growing Hardship; But In Your Full Manhood And Womanhood You Will Want What Nature Once So Bountifully Supplied And Man So Thoughtlessly Destroyed; And Because Of That Want You Will Reproach Us, Not For What We Have Used, But For What We Have Wasted...so Any Nation Which In Its Youth Lives Only For The Day, Reaps Without Sowing, And Consumes Without Husbanding, Must Expect The Penalty Of The Prodigal Whose Labor Could With Difficulty Find Him The Bare Means Of Life.

Willful Sterility Is, From The Standpoint Of The Nation, From The Standpoint Of The Human Race, The One Sin For Which The Penalty Is National Death, Race Death; A Sin For Which There Is No Atonement. No Man, No Woman, Can Shirk The Primary Duties Of Life, Whether For Love Of Ease And Pleasure, Or For Any Other Cause, And Retain His Or Her Self-respect.

We Must Treat Each Man On His Worth And Merits As A Man. We Must See That Each Is Given A Square Deal, Because He Is Entitled To No More And Should Receive No Less.

It Is Time For Us Now As A Nation To Exercise The Same Reasonable Foresight In Dealing With Our Great Natural Resources That Would Be Shown By Any Prudent Man In Conserving And Widely Using The Property Which Contains The Assurance Of Well-being For Himself And His Children.

Is America A Weakling, To Shrink From The Work Of The Great World Powers? No! The Young Giant Of The West Stands On A Continent And Clasps The Crest Of An Ocean In Either Hand. Our Nation, Glorious In Youth And Strength, Looks Into The Future With Eager Eyes And Rejoices As A Strong Man To Run A Race.

It Is True Of The Nation, As Of The Individual, That The Greatest Doer Must Also Be A Great Dreamer.

One Of Our Defects As A Nation Is A Tendency To Use What Have Been Called ''weasel Words.'' When A Weasel Sucks Eggs The Meat Is Sucked Out Of The Egg. If You Use A ''weasel Word'' After Another There Is Nothing Left Of The Other.

The Chase Is Among The Best Of All National Pastimes; It Cultivates That Vigorous Manliness For The Lack Of Which In A Nation, As In An Individual, The Possession Of No Other Qualities Can Possibly Atone.

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.

The Supreme Duty Of The Nation Is The Conservation Of Human Resources Through An Enlightened Measure Of Social And Industrial Justice. We Pledge Ourselves To Work Unceasingly In State And Nation For ... The Protection Of Home Life Against The Hazards Of Sickness, Irregular Employment And Old Age Through The Adoption Of A System Of Social Insurance Adapted To American Use.

When Great Nations Fear To Expand, Shrink From Expansion, It Is Because Their Greatness Is Coming To An End. Are We, Still In The Prime Of Our Lusty Youth, Still At The Beginning Of Our Glorious Manhood, To Sit Down Among The Outworn People, To Take Our Place With The Weak And The Craven? A Thousand Times No!

The Conservation Of Natural Resources Is The Fundamental Problem. Unless We Solve That Problem It Will Avail Us Little To Solve All Others.

Nothing Is Gained By Debate On Non-debatable Subjects.

The Leader Works In The Open And The Boss In Covert. The Leader Leads, And The Boss Drives.

Outstanding Leaders

Each Man Must Work For Himself, And Unless He So Works, No Outside Help Can Avail Him.

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.

Some Men Can Live Up To Their Loftiest Ideals Without Ever Going Higher Than A Basement.

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.

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