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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.

-Theodore Roosevelt

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I Stand For The

Theodore Roosevelt

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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.

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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!

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.

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

Unjust War Is To Be Abhorred; But Woe To The Nation That Does Not Make Ready To Hold Its Own In Time Of Need Against All Who Would Harm It! And Woe Thrice Over To The Nation In Which The Average Man Loses The Fighting Edge, Loses The Power To Serve As A Soldier If The Day Of Need Should Arise!

The American People Are Slow To Wrath, But When Their Wrath Is Once Kindled It Burns Like A Consuming Flame.

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.

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.

To Permit Every Lawless Capitalist, Every Law-defying Corporation, To Take Any Action, No Matter How Iniquitous, In The Effort To Secure An Improper Profit And To Build Up Privilege, Would Be Ruinous To The Republic And Would Mark The Abandonment Of The Effort To Secure In The Industrial World The Spirit Of Democratic Fair Dealing.

It Is Hard To Fail, But It Is Worse Never To Have Tried To Succeed.

The Only Man Who Never Makes A Mistake Is The Man Who Never Does Anything.

Lincoln-sad, Patient, Kindly Lincoln, Who After Bearing Upon His Weary Shoulders For Four Years A Greater Burden Than That Borne By Any Other Man Of The Nineteenth Century Laid Down His Life For The People Whom Living He Had Served As Well-built Upon His Early Study Of The Bible.

The United States Does Not Have A Choice As To Whether Or Not Is Will Or Will Not Play A Great Part In The World. Fate Has Made That Choice For Us. The Only Question Is Whether We Will Play The Part Well Or Badly.

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!

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.

The Most Ultimately Righteous Of All Wars Is A War With Savages.

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.

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.

The Bad Lands Grade All The Way From Those That Are Almost Rolling In Character To Those That Are So Fantastically Broken In Form And So Bizarre In Color As To Seem Hardly Properly To Belong To This Earth.

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

Work Hard At Work Worth Doing.

Don't Hit At All If You Can Help It; Don't Hit A Man If You Can Possibly Avoid It; But If You Do Hit Him, Put Him To Sleep.

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.

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

We Should Not Forget That It Will Be Just As Important To Our Descendants To Be Prosperous In Their Time As It Is To Us To Be Prosperous In Our Time.

Thank God For The Iron In The Blood Of Our Fathers

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

The Man Who Holds That Every Human Right Is Secondary To His Profit Must Now Give Way To The Advocate Of Human Welfare.

There Is Not One Among Us In Whom A Devil Does Not Dwell; At Some Time, On Some Point, That Devil Masters Each Of Us... It Is Not Having Been In The Dark House, But Having Left It, That Counts.

Wide Differences Of Opinion In Matters Of Religious, Political, And Social Belief Must Exist If Conscience And Intellect Alike Are Not To Be Stunted, If There Is To Be Room For Healthy Growth.

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

All That The Law Can Do Is To Shape Things So That No Injustice Shall Be Done By One To The Other, And That Each Man Shall Be Given The First Chance To Show The Stuff That Is In Him.

I Want To See You Game, Boys, I Want To See You Brave And Manly, And I Also Want To See You Gentle And Tender.

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.

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.

In This World The One Thing Supremely Worth Having Is The Opportunity To Do Well And Worthily A Piece Of Work Of Vital Consequence To The Welfare Of Mankind.

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.

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

The Civilized People Of Today Look Back With Horror At Their Medieval Ancestors Who Wantonly Destroyed Great Works Of Art Or Sat Slothfully By While They Destroyed. We Have Passed This Stage.... Here In The U.s. We Turn Our Rivers And Streams Into Sewers And Dumping Grounds, We Pollute The Air, We Destroy Our Forests And Exterminate Fishes, Birds And Mammals - Not To Speak Of Vulgarizing Charming Landscapes With Hideous Advertisements. But At Best It Looks As If Our People Were Awakening.

We Cannot Afford Merely To Sit Down And Deplore The Evils Of City Life As Inevitable, When Cities Are Constantly Growing, Both Absolutely And Relatively. We Must Set Ourselves Vigorously About The Task Of Improving Them; And This Task Is Now Well Begun.

I Regard The Masonic Institution As One Of The Means Ordained By The Supreme Architect To Enable Mankind To Work Out The Problem Of Destiny; To Fight Against, And Overcome, The Weaknesses And Imperfections Of His Nature, And At Last To Attain To That True Life Of Which Death Is The Herald And The Grave The Portal.

Silent Strength Is The Quality Of All Good Men And Most Mummies.

I Violate No Secret When I Say That One Of The Greatest Values In Masonry Is That It Affords An Opportunity For Men Of All Walks Of Life To Meet On Common Ground Where All Men Are Equal And Have One Common Interest.

I Think There Is Only One Quality Worse Than Hardness Of Heart And That Is Softness Of Head.

What A Man Does For Himself, Dies With Him. What A Man Does For His Community Lives Long After He's Gone.

With Self-discipline, All Things Are Possible

Formal Education

After The War, And Until The Day Of His Death, His Position On Almost Every Public Question Was Either Mischievous Or Ridiculous, And Usually Both.

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.

We Fight In Honourable Fashion For The Good Of Mankind; Fearless Of The Future, Unheeding Of Our Individual Fates, With Unflinching Hearts And Undimmed Eyes; We Stand At Armageddon, And We Battle For The Lord

It Is By No Means Necessary That A Great Nation Should Always Stand At The Heroic Level. But No Nation Has The Root Of Greatness In It Unless In Time Of Need It Can Rise To The Heroic Mood.

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.

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.

Big Jobs Usually Go To The Men Who Prove Their Ability To Outgrow Small Ones.

Yes, My Friend, And If You Will Steal For Me Then You Will Steal From Me.

Life Is A Great Adventure…accept It In Such A Spirit.

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.

The Greatest Historian Should Also Be A Great Moralist. It Is No Proof Of Impartiality To Treat Wickedness And Goodness On The Same Level.

The Woman Has The Right To Be Emancipated From The Position Of A Drudge Or A Toy. She Is Entitled To A Full Equality In Rights With Man.

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.

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.

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

There Should Be Relentless Exposure Of And Attack Upon Every Evil Practice, Whether In Politics, In Business, Or In Social Life. I Hail As A Benefactor Every Writer Or Speaker, Every Man Who, On The Platform, Or In Book, Magazine Or Newspaper, With Merciless Severity Makes Such Attack, Provided Always That He In His Turn Remembers That The Attack Is Of Use Only If It Is Absolutely Truthful.

Of One Man In Especial, Beyond Anyone Else, The Citizens Of A Republic Should Beware, And That Is Of The Man Who Appeals To Them To Support Him On The Ground That He Is Hostile To Other Citizens Of The Republic, That He Will Secure For Those Who Elect Him, In One Shape Or Another, Profit At The Expense Of Other Citizens Of The Republic. It Makes No Difference Whether He Appeals To Class Hatred Or Class Interest, To Religious Or Anti-religious Prejudice. The Man Who Makes Such An Appeal Should Always Be Presumed To Make It For The Sake Of Furthering His Own Interest.

Believe You Can And You're Halfway There.

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.

This Broken Country Extends Back From The River For Many Miles And Has Been Called Always Be Indian, French Voyager And American Trappers Alike, The Bad Lands.

Honesty First; Then Courage; Then Brains - And All Are Indispensable.

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.

Free Speech Exercised Both Individually And Through A Free Press, Is A Necessity In Any Country Where People Are Themselves Free.

It's Not Having Been In The Dark House, But Having Left It That Counts.

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.

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.

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.

I Believe In Corporations. They Are Indispensable Instruments Of Our Modern Civilization. But I Believe They Should Be So Regulated That They Shall Act For The Interests Of The Community As A Whole.

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

You Can't Choose Your Potential, But You Can Choose To Fulfill 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.

Believe You Can Do It And You Are Halfway There

War With Evil; But Show No Spirit Of Malignity Toward The Man Who May Be Responsible For The Evil. Put It Out Of His Power To Do Wrong.

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

If There Is Any One Duty Which More Than Another We Owe It To Our Children And Our Children's Children To Perform At Once, It Is To Save The Forests Of This Country, For They Constitute The First And Most Important Element In The Conservation Of The Natural Resources Of This Country.

Conservation Means Development As Much As It Does Protection.

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.

We Have Become Great Because Of The Lavish Use Of Our Resources ... But The Time Has Come To Inquire Seriously What Will Happen When Our Forests Are Gone, When The Coal, The Iron, The Oil And The Gas Are Exhausted.

Death By Violence, Death By Cold, Death By Starvation - They Are The Normal Endings Of The Stately Creatures Of The Wilderness. The Sentimentalists Who Prattle About The Peaceful Life Of Nature Do Not Realize Its Utter Mercilessness.

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.

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.

There Is No Good Reason Why We Should Fear The Future, But There Is Every Reason Why We Should Face It Seriously, Neither Hiding From Ourselves The Gravity Of The Problems Before Us Nor Fearing To Approach These Problems With The Unbending, Unflinching Purpose To Solve Them Aright.

In Order To Succeed We Need Leaders Of Inspired Idealism, Leaders To Whom Are Granted Great Visions, Who Dream Greatly And Strive To Make Their Dreams Come True; Who Can Kindle The People With The Fire From Their Own Burning Souls. The Leader For The Time Being, Whoever He May Be, Is But An Instrument, To Be Used Until Broken And Then To Be Cast Aside; And If He Is Worth His Salt He Will Care No More When He Is Broken Than A Soldier Cares When He Is Sent Where His Life Is Forfeit In Order That The Victory May Be Won.

To Educate A Man In Mind And Not In Morals Is To Educate A Menace To Society.

We Are Consuming Our Forests Three Times Faster Than They Are Being Reproduced. Some Of The Richest Timber Lands Of This Continent Have Already Been Destroyed, And Not Replaced, And Other Vast Areas Are On The Verge Of Destruction. Yet Forests, Unlike Mines, Can Be So Handled As To Yield The Best Results Of Use, Without Exhaustion, Just Like Grain Fields.

Absence And Death Are The Same - Only That In Death There Is No Suffering.

World Suffering

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

Hardness Of Heart Is A Dreadful Quality, But It Is Doubtful Whether In The Long Run It Works More Damage Than Softness Of Head.

I Have Often Thought That Unselfishness Combined In One Word More Of The Teachings Of The Bible Than Any Other In The Language.

With Great Victory Comes Great Sacrifice.

The Worst Thing I Can Do Is Nothing.

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.

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.

This Country Will Not Be A Good Place For Any Of Us To Live In Unless We Make It A Good Place For All Of Us To Live In.

Give The Brethren A Chance To Do Something, Anything, No Matter How Small Or Unimportant. A Brother Convinced That He Is Helpful Is Enthusiastic.

The Mother Is The One Supreme Asset Of National Life; She Is More Important By Far Than The Successful Statesman, Or Business Man, Or Artist, Or Scientist.

The Important Thing Is This: That, Under Such Government Recognition As We May Give To That Which Is Beneficent And Wholesome In Large Business Organizations, We Shall Be Most Vigilant Never To Allow Them To Crystallize Into A Condition Which Shall Make Private Initiative Difficult. It Is Of The Utmost Importance That In The Future We Shall Keep The Broad Path Of Opportunity Just As Open And Easy For Our Children As It Was For Our Fathers During The Period Which Has Been The Glory Of America's Industrial History.

Great Thoughts Speak Only To The Thoughtful Mind, But Great Actions Speak To All Mankind.

If I Were A Factory Employee, A Workman On The Railroads Or A Wage-earner Of Any Sort, I Would Undoubtedly Join The Union Of My Trade. If I Disapproved Of Its Policy, I Would Join In Order To Fight That Policy; If The Union Leaders Were Dishonest, I Would Join In Order To Put Them Out. I Believe In The Union And I Believe That All Men Who Are Benefited By The Union Are Morally Bound To Help To The Extent Of Their Power In The Common Interests Advanced By The Union.

There Is Nothing Brilliant Or Outstanding In My Record, Except Perhaps This One Thing. I Do The Things I Believe Ought To Be Done. And When I Make Up My Mind To Do A Thing, I Act.

Famous Inspirational

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.

A Good Navy Is Not A Provocation To War. It Is The Surest Guaranty Of Peace.

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.

Politeness [is] A Sign Of Dignity, Not Subservience.

I Never Won Anything Without Hard Labor And The Exercise Of My Best Judgment.

Leave It As It Is. You Can Not Improve On It. You Can Only Mar It. The Ages Have Been At Work On It And Man Can Only Mar It. What You Can Do Is Keep It For Your Children, Your Children's Children And For All Who Come After You.

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.

There Are Always In Life Countless Tendencies For Good And For Evil, And Each Succeeding Generation Sees Some Of These Tendencies Strengthened And Some Weakened; Nor Is It By Any Means Always, Alas! That The Tendencies For Evil Are Weakened And Those For Good Strengthened. But During The Last Few Decades There Certainly Have Been Some Notable Changes For Good In Boy Life. The Great Growth In The Love Of Athletic Sports, For Instance, While Fraught With Danger If It Becomes One-sided And Unhealthy, Has Beyond All Question Had An Excellent Effect In Increased Manliness.

Much Has Been Given Us, And Much Will Rightfully Be Expected From Us. We Have Duties To Others And Duties To Ourselves; And We Can Shrink Neither.

Never, Never, You Must Never Either Of You Remind A Man At Work On A Political Job That He May Be President.

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

The Most Important Single Ingredient In The Formula Of Success Is Knowing How To Get Along With People.

The Man Who Really Counts In The World Is The Doer, Not The Mere Critic -- The Man Who Actually Does The Work, Even If Roughly And Imperfectly, Not The Man Who Only Talks Or Writes About How It Ought To Be Done.

The Longer I Live The More I Think Of The Quality Of Fortitude... Men Who Fall, Pick Themselves Up And Stumble On, Fall Again, And Are Trying To Get Back Up When They Die.

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

Just As You Believe You May Have Already Halfway There

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

It Is The People, And Not The Judges, Who Are Entitled To Say What Their Constitution Means, For The Constitution Is Theirs, It Belongs To Them And Not To Their Servants In Office—any Other Theory Is Incompatible With The Foundation Principles Of Our Government.

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

On The Whole, We Think That The Greatest Victories Are Yet To Be Won, The Greatest Deeds Yet To Be Done, And That There Are Yet In Store For Our Peoples, And For The Causes That We Uphold, Grander Triumphs Than Have Ever Yet Been Scored. But Be This As It May, We Gladly Agree That The One Plain Duty Of Every Man Is To Face The Future As He Faces The Present, Regardless Of What It May Have In Store For Him, Turning Toward The Light As He Sees The Light, To Play His Part Manfully, As A Man Among Men.

Greatest Victory

The Name Roosevelt Has This Legendary Force In Our Country At This Time.

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

Knowing What's Right Doesn't Mean Much Unless You Do What's Right.

Envy Is As Evil A Thing As Arrogance.

When I Hear Of The Destruction Of A Species, I Feel Just As If All The Works Of Some Great Writer Have Perished.

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.

Whatever It Is, Handle It So That Your Children's Children Will Get The Benefit Of It.

To Borrow A Simile From The Football Field, We Believe That Men Must Play Fair, But That There Must Be No Shirking, And That The Success Can Only Come To The Player Who Hits The Line Hard.

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.

I Want To See You Shoot The Way You Shout.

Because We Are Unqualifiedly And Without Reservation Against Any System Of Denominational Schools, Maintained By The Adherents Of Any Creed With The Help Of State Aid, Therefore, We As Strenuously Insist That The Public Schools Shall Be Free From Sectarian Influences, And Above All, Free From Any Attitude Of Hostility To The Adherents Of Any Particular Creed.

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

The Nation Should Be Ruled By The Ten Commandments.

Ten Commandments

I Do Not Believe That Any Man Can Adequately Appreciate The World Of To-day Unless He Has Some Knowledge Of -- A Little More Than A Slight Knowledge, Some Feeling For And Of -- The History Of The World Of The Past.

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.

In The First Place We Should Insist That If The Immigrant Who Comes Here In Good Faith Becomes An American And Assimilates Himself To Us, He Shall Be Treated On An Exact Equality With Everyone Else, For It Is An Outrage To Discriminate Against Any Such Man Because Of Creed, Or Birthplace, Or Origin. But This Is Predicated Upon The Man's Becoming In Very Fact An American, And Nothing But An American.

Great Corporations Exist Only Because They Are Created And Safeguarded By Our Institutions; And It Is Therefore Our Right And Duty To See That They Work In Harmony With These Institutions.

The Great Lawyer Who Employs His Talent And His Learning In The Highly Emunerative Task Of Enabling A Very Wealthy Client To Override Or Circumvent The Law Is Doing All That In Him Lies To Encourage The Growth In The Country Of A Spirit Of Dumb Anger Against All Laws And Of Disbelief In Their Efficacy.

A Revolution Is Sometimes Necessary, But If Revolutions Become Habitual The Country In Which They Take Place Is Going Down-hill

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.

If I Have Erred, I Err In Company With Abraham Lincoln.

Kings And Such Are Just As Funny As Politicians.

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.

The Joy Of Living Is His Who Has The Heart To Demand It. Life Is A Great Adventure, And I Want To Say To You, Accept It In Such A Spirit.

To Announce That There Must Be No Criticism Of The President... Is Morally Treasonable To The American Public.

Freedom Of Speech

There Is A Delight In The Hardy Life Of The Open.

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

There Can Be No Divided Allegiance Here. Any Man Who Says He Is An American, But Something Else Also, Isn't An American At All. We Have Room For But One Flag, The American Flag...we Have Room For But One Language Here, And That Is The English Language...and We Have Room For But One Sole Loyalty And That Is A Loyalty To The American People.

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.

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

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

I Keep My Good Health By Having A Very Bad Temper, Kept Under Good Control.

Of All Forms Of Tyranny The Least Attractive And The Most Vulgar Is The Tyranny Of Mere Wealth.

Argument Weak; Speak Loudly!

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

It Is Impossible To Win The Great Prizes Of Life Without Running Risks, And The Greatest Of All Prizes Are Those Connected With The Home.

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.

The Only Tyrannies From Which Men, Women And Children Are Suffering In Real Life Are The Tyrannies Of Minorities.

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

Yes, Haven, Most Of Us Enjoy Preaching, And Ive Got Such A Bully Pulpit!

The True Christians Are The True Citizens, Lofty Of Purpose, Resolute In Endeavor, Ready For A Hero's Deeds, But Never Looking Down On Their Task Because It Is Cast In The Day Of Small Things; Scornful Of Baseness, Awake To Their Own Duties As Well As To Their Rights, Following The Higher Law With Reverence, And In This World Doing All That In Their Power Lies, So That When Death Comes They May Feel That Humanity Is In Some Degree Better Because They Lived.

The Wise And Honorable And Christian Thing To Do Is To Treat Each Black Man And Each White Man (or Any Person) On His Merits As A Man, Giving Him No More And No Less Than He Is Worthy To Have.

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

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.

The Worst Lesson That Can Be Taught To A Man Is To Rely Upon Others And To Whine Over His Sufferings

The Dull, Purblind Folly Of The Very Rich Men, Their Greed And Arrogance, And The Corruption In Business And Politics, Have Tended To Produce A Very Unhealthy Condition.

Much Has Been Given Us, And Much Will Rightfully Be Expected From Us. We Have Duties To Others And Duties To Ourselves; And We Can Shirk Neither. We Have Become A Great Nation, Forced By The Fact Of Its Greatness Into Relations With Other Nations Of The Earth, And We Must Behave As Beseems A People With Such Responsibilities.

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

It Is Imperative To Exercise Over Big Business A Control And Supervision Which Is Unnecessary As Regards Small Business. All Business Must Be Conducted Under The Law, And All Business Men, Big Or Little, Must Act Justly. But A Wicked Big Interest Is Necessarily More Dangerous To The Community Than A Wicked Little Interest. 'big Business' In The Past Has Been Responsible For Much Of The Special Privilege Which Must Be Unsparingly Cut Out Of Our National Life.

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.

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.

It Tires Me To Talk To Rich Men. You Expect A Man Of Millions, The Head Of A Great Industry, To Be A Man Worthhearing; But As A Rule They Don't Know Anything Outside Their Own Business.

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.

Germany Has Reduced Savagery To A Science, And This Great War For The Victorious Peace Of Justice Must Go On Until The German Cancer Is Cut Clean Out Of The World Body.

Make Preparations In Advance ... You Never Have Trouble If You Are Prepared For It.

It Is Better To Be Faithful Than Famous.

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.

Courtesy Is As Much A Mark Of A Gentleman As Courage.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Water Is A Commodity Not By Any Means To Be Found Everywhere...when Found, It Is More Than Likely To Be Bad, Being Either From A Bitter Alkaline Pool, Or From A Hole In A Creek, So Muddy That It Can Only Be Called Liquid By Courtesy.

It Is Not The Critic Who Counts

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.

Conservation Of Our Resources Is The Fundamental Question Before This Nation, And That Our First And Greatest Task Is To Set Our House In Order And Begin To Live Within Our Means.

The Truth Is That Any Good Modern Rifle Is Good Enough. The Determining Factor Is The Man Behind The Gun.

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.

The Stream Will Not Permanently Rise Higher Than The Main Source; And The Main Source Of National Power And National Greatness Is Found In The Average Citizenship Of The Nation. Therefore It Behooves Us To Do Our Best To See That The Standard Of The Average Citizen Is Kept High; And The Average Cannot Be Kept High Unless The Standard Of The Leaders Is Very Much Higher.

Burning Fossil Fuels Is Like Breaking Up The Furniture To Feed The Fireplace Because It's Easier Than Going Out To The Woodpile.

There Are No Words That Can Tell The Hidden Spirit Of The Wilderness, That Can Reveal Its Mystery, Its Melancholy And Its Charm. There Is A Delight In The Hardy Life Of The Open... Apart From This, Yet Mingled With It, Is The Strong Attraction Of The Silent Places, Of The Large Tropic Moons, And The Splendor Of The New Stars; Where The Wanderer Sees The Awful Glory Of Sunrise And Sunset In The Wide Waste Spaces Of The Earth, Unworn Of Man, And Changed Only By The Slow Change Of The Ages Through Time Everlasting.

I Don't Go So Far As To Think That The Only Good Indians Are Dead Indians, But I Believe Nine Out Of Ten Are, And I Shouldn't Like To Inquire Too Closely Into The Case Of The Tenth.

A Thorough Knowledge Of The Bible Is Worth More Than A College Education.

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