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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.

-Theodore Roosevelt

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I Wish To Say

Theodore Roosevelt

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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.

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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.

I Hold That In This Country There Must Be Complete Severance Of Church And State; That Public Moneys Shall Not Be Used For The Purpose Of Advancing Any Particular Creed; And Therefore That The Public Schools Shall Be Nonsectarian And No Public Moneys Appropriated For Sectarian Schools.

Believe You Can Do It And You Are Halfway There

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

I Want To See You Shoot The Way You Shout.

Appraisals Are Where You Get Together With Your Team Leader And Agree What An Outstanding Member Of The Team You Are, How Much Your Contribution Has Been Valued, What Massive Potential You Have And, In Recognition Of All This, Would You Mind Having Your Salary Halved.

Every Man Owes A Part Of His Time And Money To The Business Or Industry In Which He Is Engaged. No Man Has The Moral Right To Withhold His Support From An Organization That Is Striving To Improve Conditions Within His Sphere.

Justice Consists Not In Being Neutral Between Right And Wrong, But Finding Out The Right And Upholding It, Wherever Found, Against The Wrong.

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

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.

No Nation Can Be Really Great Unless It Is Great In Peace, In Industry, Integrity, Honesty. Skilled Intelligence In Civic Affairs And Industrial Enterprises Alike; The Special Ability Of The Artist, The Man Of Letters, The Man Of Science, And The Man Of Business; The Rigid Determination To Wrong No Man, And To Stand For Righteousness-all These Are Necessary In A Great Nation.

Women Should Have Free Access To Every Field Of Labor Which They Care To Enter, And When Their Work Is As Valuable As That Of A Man It Should Be Paid As Highly.

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.

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

If We Are To Be Really Great People, We Must Strive In Good Faith To Play A Great Part In The World. We Cannot Avoid Meeting Great Issues. All That We Can Determine For Ourselves Is Whether We Shall Meet Them Well Or Ill.

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

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

I Wish To Preach, Not The Doctrine Of Ignoble Ease, But The Doctrine Of The Strenuous Life.

Freemasonry Teaches Not Merely Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence, Justice, Brotherly Love, Relief, And Truth, But Liberty, Equality, And Fraternity, And It Denounces Ignorance, Superstition, Bigotry, Lust Tyranny And Despotism.

A Finer Body Of Men Has Never Been Gathered By Any Nation Than The Men Who Have Done The Work Of Building The Panama Canal; The Conditions Under Which They Have Lived And Have Done Their Work Have Been Better Than In Any Similar Work Ever Undertaken In The Tropics; They Have All Felt An Eager Pride In Their Work; And They Have Made Not Only America But The Whole World Their Debtors By What They Have Accomplished.

It Is Of Far More Important That A Man Shall Play Something Himself, Even If He Plays It Badly, Than That He Shall Go With Hundreds Of Companions To See Someone Else Play Well.

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

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

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.

There Can Be No Fifty-fifty Americanism In This Country. There Is Room Here For Only 100% Americanism, Only For Those Who Are Americans And Nothing Else

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

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.

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.

There Is A Delight In The Hardy Life Of The Open. There Are No Words That Can Tell The Hidden Spirit Of The Wilderness, That Can Reveal Its Mystery, Its Melancholy And Its Charm. 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. Conservation Means Development As Much As It Does Protection.

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

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.

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.

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

World Suffering

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

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!

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.

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

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

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.

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.

I Wish Very Much That The Wrong People Could Be Prevented Entirely From Breeding

The Eighth Commandment Reads, "thou Shalt Not Steal." It Does Not Read, "thou Shalt Not Steal From The Rich Man." It Does Not Read, "thou Shalt Not Steal From The Poor Man." It Reads Simply And Plainly, "thou Shalt Not Steal."

We Can Have No '50-50' Allegiance In This Country. Either A Man Is An American And Nothing Else, Or He Is Not An American At All.

No Great Intellectual Thing Was Ever Done By Great Effort.

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.

The Armenian Massacre Was The Greatest Crime Of The War.

Practical Efficiency Is Common, And Lofty Idealism Not Uncommon; It Is The Combination Which Is Necessary, And The Combination Is Rare

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.

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 Man Of Great Wealth Owes A Peculiar Obligation To The State Because He Derives Special Advantages From The Mere Existence Of Government.

We Can Just As Little Afford To Follow The Doctrinaires Of An Extreme Individualism As The Doctrinaires Of An Extreme Socialism.

Freemasonry Must Stand Upon The Rock Of Truth, Religion, Political, Social, And Economic. Nothing Is So Worthy Of Its Care As Freedom In All Its Aspects. "free" Is The Most Vital Part Of Freemasonry. It Means Freedom Of Thought And Expression, Freedom Of Spiritual And Religious Ideals, Freedom From Oppression, Freedom From Ignorance, Superstition, Vice And Bigotry, Freedom To Acquire And Possess Property, To Go And Come At Pleasure, And To Rise Or Fall According To Will Of Ability.

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.

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

We Stand At Armageddon And We Battle For The Lord.

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

Men Can Never Escape Being Governed. Either They Must Govern Themselves Or They Must Submit To Being Governed By Others.

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

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

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.

Then Get Busy And Find Out How To Do It.

Job Opportunities

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

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.

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

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.

The Worst Of All Fears Is The Fear Of Living

With Self-discipline Most Anything Is Possible.

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.

Americanism Is A Question Of Principle, Of Idealism, Of Character. It Is Not A Matter Of Birthplace, Or Creed, Or Line Of Descent.

I Took The Canal Zone And Let Congress Debate; And While The Debate Goes On, The Canal Does Also.

I Do. That Is Character!

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy.

Difficult Times

Speak Softly And Carry A Big Stick; You Will Go Far.

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

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.

I Would A Great Deal Rather Be Anything, Say Professor Of History, Than Vice President.

The Six Great Gifts Of An Irish Girl Are Beauty, Soft Voice, Sweet Speech, Wisdom, Needlework, And Chastity.

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

Just As You Believe You May Have Already Halfway There

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.

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

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.

Every Man, Who Parrots The Cry Of ‘stand By The President’ Without Adding The Proviso ‘so Far As He Serves The Republic’ Takes An Attitude As Essentially Unmanly As That Of Any Stuart Royalist Who Championed The Doctrine That The King Could Do No Wrong. No Self-respecting And Intelligent Free Man Could Take Such An Attitude.

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.

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

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.

Mckinley Shows All The Background Of A Chocolate Eclair.

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

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

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.

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.

Every Person Who Invests In Well-selected Real Estate In A Growing Section Of A Prosperous Community Adopts The Surest And Safest Method Of Becoming Independent, For Real Estate Is The Basis Of Wealth.

There Can Be No Effective Control Of Corporations While Their Political Activity Remains.

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

Making Mistakes

Obedience Of The Law Is Demanded; Not Asked As A Favor.

It Is Always Better To Be An Original Than An Imitation.

There Is Quite Enough Sorrow And Shame And Suffering And Baseness In Real Life, And There Is No Need For Meeting It Unnecessarily In Fiction.

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

The Foes From Whom We Pray To Be Delivered Are Our Own Passions, Appetites, And Follies; And Against These There Is Always Need That We Should War.

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.

Rhetoric Is A Poor Substitute For Action.

Don't Spread Patriotism Too Thin.

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.

The Bosses Of The Democratic Party And The Bosses Of The Republican Party Alike Have A Closer Grip Than Ever Before On The Party Machines In The States And In The Nation. This Crooked Control Of Both The Old Parties By The Beneficiaries Of Political And Business Privilege Renders It Hopeless To Expect Any Far-reaching And Fundamental Service From Either.

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.

Courage Is Not Having The Strength To Go On, It Is Going On When You Don't Have The Strength. Industry And Determination Can Do Anything That Genius And Advantage Can Do And Many Things That They Cannot.

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.

I Feel As Fit As A Bull Moose.

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.

The One Absolute Certain Way To Bring This Nation To Ruin ... Would Be To Permit It To Become A Tangle Of Squabbling Nationalities.

For Unflagging Interest And Enjoyment, A Household Of Children, If Things Go Reasonably Well, Certainly All Other Forms Of Success And Achievement Lose Their Importance By Comparison.

Work Hard At Work Worth Doing.

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

The Function Of Our Government Is To Insure To All Its Citizens, Now And Hereafter, Their Rights To Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Happiness. If We Of This Generation Destroy The Resources From Which Our Children Would Otherwise Derive Their Livelihood, We Reduce The Capacity Of Our Land To Support A Population, And So Either Degrade The Standard Of Living Or Deprive The Coming Generations Of Their Fight To Life On This Continent.

Pursuit Of Happiness

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

After Nightfall The Face Of The Country Seems To Alter Marvelously, And The Clear Moonlight Only Intensifies The Change. The River Gleams Like Running Quicksilver, And The Moonbeams Play Over The Grassy Stretches Of The Plateaus...the Bad Lands Seem To Be Stranger And Wilder Than Ever, The Silvery Rays Turning The Country Into A Kind Of Grim Fairyland.

The Vice Of Envy Is Not Only A Dangerous, But A Mean Vice; For It Is Always A Confession Of Inferiority. It May Promote Conduct Which Will Be Fruitful Of Wrong To Others, And It Must Cause Misery To The Man Who Feels It.

Most Of Us Tiptoe Through Life In Order To Make It Safely To Death.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

The Reactionary Is Always Willing To Take A Progressive Attitude On Any Issue That Is Dead.

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

It Is Well Indeed For Out Land That We Of This Generation Have Learned To Think Nationally.

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

There Can Be Nothing In The World More Beautiful Than The Yosemite, The Groves Of The Giant Sequoias And Redwoods, The Canyon Of The Colorado, The Canyon Of The Yellowstone, The Three Tetons; And Our People Should See To It That They Are Preserved For Their Children And Their Children's Children Forever, With Their Majestic Beauty All Unmarred.

A President Has A Great Chance; His Position Is Almost That Of A King And A Prime Minister Rolled Into One.

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.

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.

I Would Rather Go Out Of Politics Having The Feeling That I Had Done What Was Right Than Stay In With The Approval Of All Men, Knowing In My Heart That I Have Acted As I Ought Not To.

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

If We Lose The Virile, Manly Qualities, And Sink Into A Nation Of Mere Hucksters, Putting Gain Over National Honor, And Subordinating Everything To Mere Ease Of Life, Then We Shall Indeed Reach A Condition Worse Than That Of The Ancient Civilizations In The Years Of Their Decay.

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

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 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.

Malefactors Of Great Wealth Have Arrogantly Ignored The Public Welfare.

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.

More And More, As It Becomes Necessary To Preserve The Game, Let Us Hope That The Camera Will Largely Supplant The Rifle.

It Is No Limitation Upon Property Rights Or Freedom Of Contract To Require That When Men Receive From Government The Privilege Of Doing Business Under Corporate Form... They Shall Do So Under Absolutely Truthful Representations... Great Corporations Exist Only Because They Were Created And Safeguarded By Our Institutions; And It Is Therefore Our Right And Duty To See That They Work In Harmony With These Institutions.

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.

Weasel Words From Mollycoddles Will Never Do When The Day Demands Prophetic Clarity From Greathearts. Manly Men Must Emerge For This Hour Of Trial.

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.

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.

The Man Who Does Not Think It Was America's Duty To Fight For Her Own Sake In View Of The Infamous Conduct Of Germany Toward Us Stands On A Level With A Man Who Wouldn't Think It Necessary To Fight In A Private Quarrel Because His Wife's Face Was Slapped.

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

Second Amendment

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

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

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

It Is Not The Critic Who Counts

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.

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.

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

We Wish Peace, But We Wish The Peace Of Justice, The Peace Of Righteousness. We Wish It Because We Think It Is Right And Not Because We Are Afraid.

While The Nation That Has Dared To Be Great, That Has Had The Will And The Power To Change The Destiny Of The Ages, In The End Must Die, Yet No Less Surely The Nation That Has Played The Part Of The Weakling Must Also Die; And Whereas The Nation That Has Done Nothing Leaves Nothing Behind It, The Nation That Has Done A Great Work Really Continues, Though In Changed Form, To Live Forevermore.

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.

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

Thorough Knowledge

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.

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.

I Was A Reasonably Good Student In College ... My Chief Interests Were Scientific. When I Entered College, I Was Devoted To Out-of-doors Natural History, And My Ambition Was To Be A Scientific Man Of The Audubon, Or Wilson, Or Baird, Or Coues Type-a Man Like Hart Merriam, Or Frank Chapman, Or Hornaday, To-day.

Such An Experiment Without Actual Conditions Of War To Support It Is A Foolish Waste Of Time. . . . I Once Saw A Man Kill A Lion With A 30-30 Caliber Rifle Under Certain Conditions, But That Doesn't Mean That A 30-30 Rifle Is A Lion Gun.

Every Special Interest Is Entitled To Justice - Full, Fair, And Complete... But Not One Is Entitled To A Vote In Congress, To A Voice On The Bench, Or To Representation In Any Public Office.

There Is No Room In This Country For Hyphenated Americanism.

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

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.

Criticism Is Necessary And Useful; It Is Often Indispensable; But It Can Never Take The Place Of Action, Or Be Even A Poor Substitute For It. The Function Of The Mere Critic Is Of Very Subordinate Usefulness. It Is The Doer Of Deeds Who Actually Counts In The Battle For Life, And Not The Man Who Looks On And Says How The Fight Ought To Be Fought, Without Himself Sharing The Stress And The Danger.

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.

Personally I Have Never Been Able To Understand Why The Head Of A Big Business, Whether It Be The Nation, The State Or The Army, Or Navy Should Not Desire To Have Very Strong And Positive People Under Him.

The Nation Should Be Ruled By The Ten Commandments.

Ten Commandments

The Sons Of All Of Us Will Pay In The Future If We Of The Present Do Not Do Justice In The Present.

Your Attitude About Who You Are And What You Have Is A Very Little Thing That Makes A Very Big Difference.

The Credit Belongs To The Man Who Is Actually In The Arena; Whose Face Is Marred With Dust And Sweat; Who Strives Valiantly; Who Errs And May Fall Again And Again, Because There Is No Effort Without Error Or Shortcoming.

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.

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

Progressive Taxation

No President Has Ever Enjoyed Himself As Much As I?

The White House Is A Bully Pulpit.

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.

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.

The Best Lesson That Any People Can Learn Is That There Is No Patent Cure-all Which Will Make The Body Politic Perfect, And That Any Man Who Is Able Glibly To Answer Every Question As To How To Deal With The Evils Of The Body Politic Is At Best A Foolish Visionary And At Worst An Evil-minded Quack.

What I Have Advocated Is Not Wild Radicalism. It Is The Highest And Wisest Kind Of Conservatism.

In Speaking To You Men Of The Greatest City Of The West, Men Of The State Which Gave To The Country Lincoln And Grant, Men Who Preeminently And Distinctly Embody All That Is Most American In The American Character, I Wish To Preach Not The Doctrine Of Ignoble Ease, But The Doctrine Of The Strenuous Life.

What I Am To Be, I Am Becoming.

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.

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

... The Armenian Massacre Was The Greatest Crime Of The War, And The Failure To Act Against Turkey Is To Condone It ... The Failure To Deal Radically With The Turkish Horror Means That All Talk Of Guaranteeing The Future Peace Of The World Is Mischievous Nonsense.

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.

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.

The Settler And Pioneer Have At Bottom Had Justice On Their Side; This Great Continent Could Not Have Been Kept As Nothing But A Game Preserve For Squalid Savages.

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

Old Age Is Like Everything Else. To Make A Success Of It, You've Got To Start Young.

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